


The Night Mare

by Skeeter_110



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Car Accidents, Death, Gunshot Wounds, Hurt/Comfort, Irondad, Loki (Marvel) is a Good Bro, May is Dead, Mentioned Skip Westcott, Norse Mythology - Freeform, Panic Attacks, Parent Tony Stark, Past Sexual Assault, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Adopted Child, Sad Peter Parker, Skip westcott is the worst, Sorry I love her but she's dead, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, lots of death, spiderson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-01-16 14:47:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 9
Words: 40,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21272930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skeeter_110/pseuds/Skeeter_110
Summary: They say, in Norse Mythology, when you go to sleep your soul is free to wander. The more curious the person, the further the soul will go.Without your soul, your body is left there, free for whatever demon finds it. Mare's will begin to appear, plaguing your mind with terrible dreams in hope that it'll keep your soul away.When Peter Parker goes to sleep one night, he doesn't wake up.Will he be able to get help from a certain Norse God? Or will the Mare take over completely?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> PLEASE READ THIS NOTE BEFORE BEGINNING
> 
> So, this is a pretty intense story. I wanted to kind of show all of the horrible and traumatic things Peter Parker has gone through throughout his life. Some things, like the Mare, are dramatized and are made to fit the story, so some things might not be canon. 
> 
> Trigger Warnings:  
Sexual assault to a minor, death by gunshot wound, death from car crash, death from plane crash, panic attacks
> 
> There is a lot of death in this story, it does get a little dark, but it does have a happy ending. Please, please, please, be careful reading this and just try to avoid things that could end up hurting or triggering you. 
> 
> If there are any tags that you feel I should add that I haven't or anything to add to the trigger warnings, please let me know so I can gladly do that!

_'Boss, it is currently 7:28 and Mr. Parker has ignored three of his wake up calls. If he continues to sleep, he will be late for school.'_ FRIDAY informs Tony, making him look up from the computer he was writing code in.

He glanced down at his watch, quietly cursing under his breath when he realized that he ended up accidentally spending the whole night down in the lab. Tony just rubbed the exhaustion from his eyes before standing and stretching; his joints popping and cracking from the simple action.

"I got him, FRI." Tony says, slowly making his way out of the lab and towards the young teen's room; making sure to grab a cup of coffee on his way.

He was used to having to wake up Peter every now and then. The teenager had been living with him for the past seven months due to the untimely death of his Aunt and, sometimes everything would become too much at once and the boy would try to hide away from all of his problems.

Tony just assumed that it was going to be another one of those days. One of those days where he'll wake Peter up and pretend to let him staying home slide; even though Tony would prefer him to stay home when he gets like this. One of those days where the poor teen would stay holed up in his room, crying instead of talking about what was wrong, until he finally came down during dinner time and talked about what was actually going on in his head.

"Hey, Kid, are you awake?" Tony asks, despite knowing the answer, while lightly knocking on the young boy's door. He waited a bit before slowly cracking the door open. "Hey, Pete, I'm coming in." Tony awkwardly announces, just in case the teen did end up waking up.

Sure enough, like FRIDAY said, Peter was laying in his bed, still in a deep sleep. Tony couldn't help but chuckle when he saw how crazy the boy's hair was. It was all tangled and knotted together, a true testament to how crazy of a sleeper he really was.

"Hey, Underoos, it's time to wake up now." Tony says, a lot louder than he normally would in hopes that his voice would be enough to wake the boy up like it usually was. When that didn't work, Tony just sighed and walked closer to the boy, tapping on his forehead.

"Alright, Sleeping Beauty, if you're this tired you're not going patrolling late tonight." Tony threatens, lightly shaking the teen's shoulder.

Fear washed over Tony like a bucket of ice water when Peter still didn't stir.

"Pete, come on, Kid, you need to wake up now." Tony says, setting his coffee cup down on the bedside table and crouching down to be face-level with the teenager as he continued to shake him, only slightly harder this time. "Peter, wake up, right now. It's time to open your eyes." Tony says, fear running through his voice.

"FRIDAY, what's happening? Why isn't he waking up? Did he take something?" Tony quickly asks, grabbing Peter's wrist to make sure he still had a pulse.

_'Mr. Parker did not take anything that would cause him harm. His vitals all match up to what his vitals are when he is sleeping. I suggest taking him down to the Medbay, perhaps there is a problem that I cannot detect.'_ FRIDAY tells him, not helping to ease his panic at all.

"Okay, okay, okay. Who is left in the tower?" Tony asks, knowing that most of the team was out on a mission.

_'Captain Rogers, Doctor Banner, and Thor are all in the building.'_

"Alright, okay, I need you to get Steve, tell him it's an emergency; I can't carry Peter all the way to the Medbay myself. Then, I need you to tell Bruce what's going on. Tell him what Peter's vitals are, just... everything and tell him to get the Medbay ready." Tony orders, not even needing a conformation to know that FRIDAY was doing it.

"It's okay, Pete, we're going to figure out what's wrong." Tony reassures the young boy, not even knowing if he was able to hear him right now.

Tony kept whispering soft reassurances, pushing some of Peter's tangled hair out of his face, until Steve ran into the room.

"Tony, what's going on? FRIDAY said there was an emergency."

"Yeah, something's wrong with Peter, I need your help carrying him down to the Medbay." Tony says, standing up and moving so Steve could get to Peter. Thankfully, Steve didn't ask anymore questions after, instead just scooping the teen into his arms.

They quickly made their way out of the room, going through the lounge to the stairs; passing and ignoring a very confused and concerned Thor on the way. Tony figured he would deal with the God later once they were sure Peter was okay.

When they got down to the Medbay, they could see Bruce running around to get things ready, making Tony even more thankful that Bruce wasn't called on the mission.

"Bruce." Steve says, getting the doctor's attention.

"Yeah, yeah, just set him on the bed. Did anything happen last night during his patrol that would cause brain damage of any kind?" Bruce asks Tony, helping Steve lower Peter onto the bed he prepared.

"No, he was perfectly fine. He came down to my lab last night afterwards and there wasn't even a scratch on him. I looked at the video of patrol last night too and there was nothing that could cause him to just not wake up." Tony all but rambles, trying to keep his composure in front of the two men, but failing miserably.

"I'm going to do an MRI, see if anything out of the ordinary is happening." Bruce says, going to walk away, but being stopped by a booming voice.

"None of your technology is going to be able to help young Peter, Banner." Thor says, making everyone look at him with confusion.

"What do you mean? Do you know what's wrong with Peter?" Tony asks, Thor sighing as he glanced at the boy.

"Do you not see it? Sitting on his chest and tangling his hair." Thor continues, making everyone but Tony look down at Peter with confusion.

"Thor, you're making absolutely no sense. Peter's hair is tangled because the kid is basically an Olympic swimmer when he sleeps, and he has such thick curls; it's a shock it doesn't get this tangled more often." Tony says, Thor shaking his head with disbelief.

"So you really don't see it. Of course you wouldn't, you're just mere mortals."

"See what, Thor? What are we missing?" Bruce decides to ask, knowing that if Tony and Thor continued, nothing would be solved.

"The Mare! Sitting right there on his chest!" Thor all but shouts, pointing at some imaginary thing. "It's tangling his hair! Mare's do that, whatever they touch becomes tangled; hair in cattle, branches in trees, hair on bodies." He adds.

"The... Mare? What even- Look, Thor, buddy, we don't have time for this-" Tony goes to say, but Thor was being persistent.

"If you do not listen to me, young Peter will never wake up."

"Okay, just... explain, because we don't see anything." Steve was the one to step in now.

"No, of course you wouldn't, you're all humans. How a Mare even got to Earth is worrisome in itself. A Mare is a type of creature from my planet; a demon, really," Thor begins.

"When you go to sleep, the soul that's in you is free to leave your body and wander however it pleases. It can stay in the same room as your body, or it can wander off. The more curious the person, the more curious the soul, the bigger the chance of the soul wandering too far,"

"If the soul does not return to the body, the person will not wake up. The longer the body is without a soul, the bigger chance a Mare will come and sit on their chest. The Mare will feed on your wandering soul, giving you nightmares in attempts to keep your soul further away."

The room was completely silent as everyone took the information Thor just gave them and processed it.

"So, let me get this straight. There's an invisible demon sitting on my kid's chest, feeding on his soul, which is apparently wandering around, all because Peter is one of the most curious people you'll ever meet?" Tony asks, not even really being able to believe the information he was just given.

"Yes."

"Does he know what's happening? Is it hurting him other than feeding on him?" Steve asks, Tony squeezing his eyes shut and holding onto Peter's hand in order to prepare himself for the answer.

"Young Peter has no idea what is happening right now. In his head, he is still sleeping and is just having a terrible dream." Thor reassures, Tony letting out a soft breath.

"What happens if this isn't fixed in time?" Bruce asks this time, Tony just wishing that they would get to the part where they talk about the solution and then do it already.

"The Mare will have fed completely on his soul and have taken over his body. That's what it wants, a body of it's own instead of just being a demon."

"So how do we fix it?" Tony tensely asks, Thor suddenly getting sheepish.

"This used to happen to my Father quite often. He would be scared almost every night to go to sleep because his soul would wander so far off; every night he thought was going to be the last time he was awake." Thor tells them, trying to avoid actually answering.

"Okay, so, you know how to fix this then. Tell us how." Bruce says, noticing how nervous Thor seemed all of a sudden.

"There were two people with the magic to fix this. One, being my mother-"

"But she's gone, so who's the next one?" Tony quickly steps in, wanting to get this over with so they could just get going.

"And my brother, Loki-" Thor quickly says, Steve being even quicker to cut him off.

"No."

"Steve-" Bruce tries to reason, Steve efficiently cutting him off too.

"No! Do none of you remember what happened last time Loki was on Earth?" Steve asks, noticing the way Tony flinched ever so slightly at the reminder.

"Is there anyone else you know that can help Peter?" Tony asked, Thor giving a sympathetic look when the mechanic looked up from the teenager.

"I'm sorry, but no one but my brother can help with this. Without him, young Peter will never wake up again."

"How do we even know that he'll help Peter? How do I know he's not going to hurt him once he gets here." Tony continues to question, not even sure what to do right now.

"I can assure you my brother will not intentionally harm young Peter. He may despise all of you, but he despises Mares even more. Once he knows how young, young Peter truly is, he'll want to help." Thor tells him, Steve looking at Tony with shock and confusion swimming in his eyes.

"Tell me you're not actually considering this as an option!" Steve shouts, Tony giving him the deadliest look.

"I don't want to do this. You think I don't remember what happened the last time Loki came here? I went through a fucking wormhole. But if what Thor is saying is true, then this is the only way to help Peter and I'll be damned if I let anything happen to my kid." Tony spits out, stepping closer to Steve. Before Steve could continue his side of the argument, Tony spoke up again; this time talking to everyone.

"If Loki come and helps, he stays handcuffed, no matter what. _And_ we stay armed. One wrong move, and I will not hesitate to blow his head off, got it?" Thor just nodded, not looking too happy with Tony's choice of words, but understanding where the man was coming from.

"First, we must get young Peter to the location he fell asleep in. It'll be easier for his soul to find it's way back if his body is in the same place it left it." Thor tells them, Steve sighing in defeat before nodding and going to pick Peter up.

"I found him sleeping on the couch last night. I carried him to his room." He says, gently carrying the young boy out of the room. Tony just rubbed his face guiltily and ran his fingers through his hair.

Tony knew he probably fell asleep on the couch waiting for him to come out of his lab. Tony knew that it wasn't his fault, how was he supposed to know that a demon from Thor's planet was going to come and eat Peter's soul? He knew there really was no way to prevent what happened from happening, but he couldn't help but feel guilty.

Tony couldn't help but think that maybe if he had payed attention to the time and came up to tell the poor kid good night, he wouldn't have fallen asleep on the couch. Tony couldn't help but think that maybe his soul got curious and wandered so far away was because of the fact that he fell asleep somewhere other than his bedroom.

As crazy as that sounds.

Tony was brought out of his thoughts when he felt a gentle hand land on his shoulder. He looked away from where Steve was gently laying Peter down on the couch to see Bruce giving him a sympathetic smile.

"I know that look on your face, Tony. I know you're somehow coming up with a way to blame yourself for what's happening. I don't even think there's a way for this to even be your fault." Bruce whispers to him, both men ignoring Thor telling them how he was going to quickly going to go to Asgard and be back within the hour.

Tony just gave Bruce one of his famous press smiles, not really able to do more.

"Let's just get my kid back."

* * *

It took a little over two hours before they heard the trademark crash that could only be Thor; only a sliver of relief being released into the room. All three men have been tense and restless while waiting for the God to come back.

Tony almost instantly sat down on the couch when Thor left, practically pulling Peter onto his lap; in order to comfort himself or Peter , no one could really tell. The only time he actually let go of Peter was to grab one of his combs to try and attempt to untangle his curls; although every time Tony managed to get all of Peter's curls untangled they would just wrap around each other again.

Bruce managed to run some tests without the MRI and said that everything else about Peter still seemed normal, so he was sure that his brain activity would show that it was actually as if he was sleeping. Which helped a bit, but not enough to really relax Tony's racing mind. Steve just continued to pace, his shield sitting on the couch next to Peter, ready for when Thor returned with Loki.

As soon as Tony heard the thunder, he activated his wrist gauntlet while Steve grabbed his shield and got into a defensive position.

"If he makes one wrong move, I won't hesitate to attack him."' Steve whispers to Tony, only getting an eye roll in return. He no longer had the energy to deal with Steve.

It wasn't that Tony wasn't also being cautious and trusted Loki, but he honestly was willing to do anything if it meant that Peter would be okay. Tony would honestly attack Steve before attacking Loki if it meant Peter could get the help he needed; Tony wasn't going to let Steve interfere with whatever process was going to happen.

Thor and Loki slowly made their way into the living room, Loki's hands encased in a pair of Asgardian handcuffs. The tension in the room grew as all of the humans in the room locked eyes with the mischievous God.

"Is that the child?" Loki asked, being the first to break the silence, nodding his head towards the sleeping teen in Tony's lap.

"Yes." Thor answered, Loki humming before walking towards the couch. Bruce instantly stepped back, not before earning a nervous glance from Loki, but Steve stepped closer to Tony, giving a protective glare to Loki.

"Stark." Loki greets, nodding at the engineer in front of him.

"Enough with the pleasantries. Can you or can you not help him?" Tony asks, not even caring about being polite about it.

"I can, but I need my brother to remove my restraints." Loki says, Steve instantly steeping closer to the trickster.

"No. No way-" He tries to disagree, Loki only standing straighter with an even more determined look on his face.

"I cannot use my magic with them on. If I cannot use my magic I can not help the child and believe me when I say this child needs my help." Loki tells them, Steve going to protest once again, Tony speaking up before he was able to.

"Do it." He tells Thor, Steve whipping around to face him.

"Tony, you're not thinking straight. We can't just let Loki-"

"I said do it!" Tony practically yells, no longer caring if it was dangerous.

"Tones..." Bruce goes to say, instantly drifting off when he saw the glare Tony was giving him.

Thor just sighed before walking towards his brother, hesitantly going and taking the handcuffs off. Loki rubbed his wrists as soon as they were free, hesitantly looking at everyone in the room before making his way over to Tony and Peter.

Loki sat down on the couch right next to Peter reaching to take his hand, but stopping when Tony grabbed it and pulled it away from him.

"What are you going to be doing?" He asks, unconscious tightening his hold that he had on the boy.

"My soul will connect with his. I'll be seeing the nightmares the Mare is putting him through and help him get through them. My magic is stronger than the Mare's so I can help make it more bearable; the Mare typically takes some bad memories and uses them against you, so I can take his good memories and help with that until our souls return." Loki explains, Tony allowing him to take Peter's hand this time.

"Listen, Peter has been through a lot in his short life, so whatever you see..." Tony begins to warn, Loki nodding his head in understanding.

"I will attempt to be gentle." Loki reassures before scooting back on the couch so his body won't drop to the floor once his souls leaves, tightening his grip on Peter's hand and closing his eyes.

As soon as Loki opened his eyes, he was in a completely different room. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki finds out that Tony isn't Peter's biological father and is just his adopted one, and what happened to the teen's parent's to make it that way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Friday Everyone!!! I update every Friday so here's the next chapter!!

In the room Loki now found himself in, there was a bed and a few cabinets, but other than that it was fairly small; and also for whatever reason rocking. There was a boy in the corner of the room, and, despite him wearing a childish looking pair of shorts and sweater- something completely different from what Loki had seen a second ago - he recognized it to be Peter.

Peter's back was turned to Loki while he looked out the window, which made him slowly approached the young boy so he wouldn't startle him too much; also noticing that they were in the sky when he glanced out the window.

"Young child." Loki greets, making the boy gasp and whip around. His brown eyes were blown wide once he saw the God standing in front of him, and he instantly began to back up.

"Holy shit!" Was the only thing he was able to say as he scurried backwards, tripping over his own feet and falling into one of the cabinets. "Don't hurt me." Peter begs, Loki giving him an attempt of a smile.

"I am not here to hurt you, child, I'm here for quite the opposite. Something has happened-" Loki begins to reassure, getting cut off by the boy's worried rambles.

"What happened? Is everyone okay? Where's Tony? Is he okay?"

"Everyone is fine, child, it's _you_ that's in danger." Loki tells him, watching as the confusion began to take over the worried look on his face.

"Me? Wait, aren't I dreaming right now? I mean I have to be, you're Loki, you're supposed to be in some sort of Asgardian prison right now. And _I'm_ in trouble? Is this some way of my self conscious telling me to wake up because there's like a fire or robbery happening in the penthouse right now?" Peter continues his nervous rambles.

"Wow, you talk a lot." Loki comments, wishing Stark warned him about that.

"Hey!"

"Listen! You are in danger. I cannot go too far into detail in worries of the thing that is attacking you overhearing. I can tell you, though, that your soul left your body and I am just here to guide you through the dreams that we'll encounter until we reach your body." Loki explains, Peter still looking at him like he had fifteen heads.

"So... like the Christmas carol?" Peter hesitantly asks, making Loki be the one who was confused now.

"Christmas carol?"

"Yeah, it's this book where the spirits of Christmas past, present, and future come and show this bad person through his life and what his life will end up being if he doesn't change." Peter explains, Loki not really understanding the connection, but knew they didn't have much time so didn't bother asking.

"Sure, but we must begin now, child." Loki tells the teen, making him nod and slowly get back up to his feet.

"S-So we're just going to be going through my dreams then? Is that why I'm dressed like this?" Peter asks, hesitantly shuffling towards Loki and pointing down at the sweater and shorts he was wearing.

"Yes." Loki plainly responds, Peter just shrugging in return.

_'Weirder things have happened. In the words of John Mulaney: 'this might as well happen'_ Peter couldn't help but think as he and Loki walk towards the door.

"So, what exactly am I going to be seeing? Are they going to be like those weird dreams where you're waking the halls on your first day of school and you find out that you're actually naked and everyone is there staring?" Peter asks, standing next to Loki in front of the door.

"Do you actually have dreams like that?" He questions, looking at the young teen with a weird look on his face.

"Sometimes." Peter shrugged, Loki only sighing and shaking his head. He barely understood Midgardians, let alone Midgardian children.

"No, you'll be seeing dreams based on the nightmares that happened in your life." Loki clears up, only making Peter even more anxious. "Do you have an idea of what you're going to see?" Loki asks, feeling the shift in tension.

"Too much." Peter replies, going and opening the door; completely unprepared for what it was that he saw.

They instantly walked into what appeared to be a very lived-in apartment. As soon as Peter walked through the door his blood went cold, he hadn't been here in almost a year.

There was a couple standing in the kitchen that Loki, of course, didn't recognize; but he assumed they meant something considering Peter looked like he was about to have a breakdown and they're in his "dream-memory".

"Who are these people? I'm assuming they're important." Loki asks, Peter not even bothering to take his eyes - that were now rapidly filling with tears - off of the couple in the kitchen.

"These people are my Aunt May and Uncle Ben. They adopted me when my parents died." Peter explains, quickly wiping away the tears that managed to escape. "I never thought I'd see them again." Peter whispers mostly to himself.

"After your parents died? But, Stark-"

"-Isn't my real Dad. He just adopted me after my Aunt and Uncle died." Peter explains, silence falling on the room for a few minutes until Loki spoke up.

"Well, now you have to explain to me what the dream is about in order to start it, and to keep it going you must watch what is happening. If you stop, the dream will too." Peter just gave Loki a confused look, pulling his eyes away from his pseudo-parents for the first time.

"Explain you the dream? I don't even know what's happening right now! Like I've said they adopted me when my parents died, which was back when I was-" Peter begins, looking down at the outfit he was currently wearing.

Dread filled him as soon as the thought occurred. Peter quickly ran to a room that used to be his bedroom and threw open the door. It wasn't the same room he remembered though, it was the guest room May and Ben used to have for when Peter's parents went on missions and had to leave him behind.

And sure enough, on the bed that was definitely too big for him at the time, was a three-year-old Peter, sleeping peacefully. Peter slowly walked over to the bed, staring down at his toddler self and trying extremely hard to not spiral right then and there.

Loki slowly made his way into the room, watching as Peter walked around the room and began to look for something.

"Is this you as a baby?" Loki asks, Peter humming in agreement while he searches for whatever it was that he was looking for.

"I wouldn't say baby, more like child or toddler, but yeah." Peter corrects groaning when he couldn't open a drawer to the desk in the room.

"It's a dream, remember. You can't actually interact with anything in here, or the people." Loki tells him, making him scoff and leave the room.

"What are you looking for, child?" Loki asks in a demanding tone, watching as Peter frantically looking around the living room now.

"You said I have to explain what's happening, right?" Peter asks, only getting a small hesitant nod out of the God. "Then I have to figure out what today is in order to do that. Why the hell did May and Ben never keep calendars around?" Peter says, finally finding a calendar that was on the floor behind the armchair.

"Well?" Loki asks after a while, wondering what it was that made Peter practically freeze. Peter just pried his eyes from the calendar and let out a defeated sounding sigh when his eyes locked with Loki's.

"It's the day we find out my parents were killed."

And almost as soon as those words were spoken, the bodies in the kitchen came to life.

"I'm just saying, Ben, it's been a week. _A week. _They were supposed to be back by now." May says, Peter instantly standing up and walking towards the kitchen.

"You know how these things go, May. Sometimes they take longer than expected." Ben tries to defend; from what, no one knew.

_'Probably against the idea that the mission went wrong.' _Peter couldn't help but think.

"They typically call to let us know if they have to be gone longer than expected." May points out, only getting a sigh and head shake in return.

"They're fine, May. Sometimes they're not able to call; you're just worrying over nothing." Ben tries to reassure.

"I know you don't want to think of the possibility of something happening to your brother, but, Ben, I've been having this really bad and uneasy feeling ever since they dropped Peter off." May admits, Ben completely ignoring what she said by walking passed her further into the kitchen.

"Speaking of Petey, we should probably make him something to eat for when he wakes up from his nap. He didn't eat much at breakfast today.

"You know he's asking questions?" May asks, only getting a hum in return. "Peter is smart, Benjamin; you and I both know he has Richard and Mary's brain combined. He knows he was only supposed to be here for two days and that he's been here longer. He's not a normal three-year-old, we can't keep lying to him when he knows something's wrong." May tells him, her voice sounding desperate at this point.

"There is nothing wrong, May." Ben repeats, starting the process of making a sandwich for three-year-old Peter.

"Your Aunt was right to be worried, wasn't she?" Loki asks, getting a jerky nod out of teenage Peter.

By the time May made her way into the living room, there was a knock at the door, making Peter's heart drop. He knew who was on the other side of that door, he knew what was going to happen once May opened that door.

"Were we expecting someone?" May asks, getting a confused look and shrug out of Ben. A dreaded look crossed May's face as she made her towards the front door; opening it right after the person knocked once again.

Standing right there in the front door were two very familiar SHIELD agents, standing mournfully and waiting for May to let them in.

"Those men..." Loki whispers, his eyes instantly shooting to look at Peter. Loki also knew these men, he could never forget them; not after what he was forced to do.

"Yeah... you probably recognize them. That's Nick Fury and Phil Coulson; they're practically my Uncles. My Mom and Dad both worked under Fury and with Coulson. They're here to tell us that my parents died going on their mission." Peter explains, Loki not quite sure what was happening to him.

He couldn't stop the tightness in his chest when he realized that he killed one of the men that was a part of the very small family this child was a part of.

"Fury." May breathed out, Ben's head instantly snapping up from where he was still attempting to make Peter's sandwich.

Peter, instantly getting déjà vu, turned around to see his three-year-old self hiding behind the wall that connects the hallway with the living room. Loki also looked behind, sighing when he realized that whatever harsh truth was going to be said, this child, as a baby, was going to hear.

"May." Fury says, once Peter turned his attention back onto the scene in front of him, giving an awkward nod. Ben quickly made his way to where his wife was standing, panic filling him when he only saw Fury and Coulson.

"Where's my brother? Where's Richie, where's Mary?" Ben quickly asks, not liking how Fury and Coulson's faces fell even more; if that were even possible.

"You should sit down." Fury tells them, already giving them the answer they dreaded most without actually saying anything. May let out a choked sob as Ben wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pushed her towards the sofa; Fury and Coulson following behind them.

"Where is my baby brother, Fury?" Ben spits out once everyone got comfortable in the living room, clearly not wanting to dance anymore than they already were around whatever it was that happened. There was a long silence, the two agents unsure of how to begin this type of conversation, before Fury actually spoke up.

"As you know, Mary and Richard were called to a mission in Algeria. They've been undercover for a while now, spying on Red Skull's base there and we thought that now would be the right time for them to go in and destroy the base." Fury began, instantly stopping to look at the floor and clear his throat.

"Red Skull found out and sent someone named 'The Finisher' to..." Coulson tried to finish for Fury, finding the task a lot more difficult than he thought.

"To what? Will one of you just spit it out already?" Ben all but shouts, making May flinch and tightly grab his hand.

"Red Skull found out and had The Finisher destroy the plane Richard and Mary were on. They're-They're gone, and we have reason to believe Red Skull wants Peter, also." Fury quickly says, almost as if he was ripping off the band-aid.

"They wanted you? Why would they want a baby?" Loki asks, pulling Peter back to reality. He got so absorbed with watching this a second time he completely forgot that it was just a dream and that Loki was still there with him; he also didn't notice that tears were streaming down his face until he turned his head and felt them running down his neck.

"Uhh..." He begins, clearing his throat in attempt to get rid of the lump that was there. "Probably for revenge. My parents probably got a lot of information if they were undercover for a while and maybe they wanted to experiment on me or something. I'm not quite sure because none of that happened, I was kept under watch for the longest time." Peter explains, Loki nodding his head as they both turned their attention back to the dream.

Once it started back up, May let out cry, curling in on herself as Ben pulled her close to him, silent tears falling down his face. Coulson just stood there, looking as if he was about to cry, as Fury continued to stare down at the ground.

"Peter!" May shouts, gasping in attempt to stop her hysterics once she realized they still had a three-year-old, that was now orphaned, in their care. "What are we going to do about him? What are we going to tell him?" May asks, Ben only being able to shake his head. Peter, not really knowing what to do and not really understanding what was happening, slowly revealed himself once he heard his name.

"Aunt May? Uncle Ben?" The toddler mumbles, his fingers slowly finding their way to his mouth when all four adults looked at him. Peter just slowly made his way further into the room, not being able to ignore the tears on both his Aunt and Uncle's face. "Why are you both sad?" The toddler asks, his Aunt's eyes filling with tears once again as she quickly scoops the little boy up in her arms.

"Something bad happened, baby." May simply says, her voice cracking as she held the toddler close to her chest; almost as if she was scared he would disappear too.

"Did something bad happen to Mommy and Daddy? Is that why they've been gone for so long?" Peter asks, looking over at Fury and Coulson. He knew that they wouldn't be here if that wasn't the case.

"Yeah, Buddy." Ben answers this time, not being able to raise his voice above a whisper.

"Did the bad guy get them?" Peter continues to ask, whispering also as he begins to curl in on himself. He knew that if the bad guys got his parents he wouldn't see them for a long, long time.

Both adults just nodded, tears streaming down both their faces once again. Peter didn't know what to do. He didn't feel like crying like his Aunt and Uncle were, he just felt worried; was Fury and Coulson going to look for his parents?

"Are you going to find them?" Peter asked the two spies, making them look at each other before uneasily looking anywhere but at the toddler.

"No, Buddy, they can't go find them. Mommy and Daddy...a-are...g-gone." Ben chokes out causing toddler Peter to instantly jump off of May's lap and storm to the two spies.

"You were supposed to keep them safe! You promised the bad guys weren't going to get them! Why didn't you stop the bad guys?" Peter shouts at them, the tears finally streaming down his cheeks as he ran into the guest bedroom.

The dream memory seemed to freeze there, no one moving from where they last moved.

"Child, this is all the creature was forcing you to see. I found a good memory that followed this one." Loki tells Peter, slowly pulling him away from the frozen scene in front of them.

Peter quickly wiped his face with his sleeve, thankful Loki was giving him a few seconds to compose himself before opening up the door to the guest room. Although, when they stepped into it, it wasn't the same guest room it just was.

It was completely empty, tarps covering the floor and window, with tape covering the corners; Ben was also in the room pouring yellow paint into a paint tray.

"How is the memory happening already? I didn't explain it yet." Peter points out, looking at how his outfit changed into older looking clothes.

"Because I am the one controlling it and not the creature from before. I'm using my magic to hold them off long enough for you to compose yourself and enjoy a good memory." Loki explains, the rest of Peter's questions getting cut off by his little toddler voice.

"Uncle Ben, I'm in old clothes!" The little boy shouts, quickly running into the room his Uncle was in.

"Alright, Petey, grab the paint brushes and let's get going." Ben says, standing up and watching as the small boy dug through one of the grocery bags, pulling out two paint brushes and handing one to Ben.

"Now, remember, we have to be done before Aunt May gets home from work. You know how grouchy she'll get if she finds out we actually painted the room after she said no." Ben says, quickly dipping his brush in the paint and starting with the higher spots on the wall.

He knew Peter wasn't going to be able to actually do a real job while painting, but he wanted the boy to feel like this was actually his room now and he figured that helping make it his own color would help with that.

"Aunt May is going to put you in time out." Peter giggles out, splattering the wall with uneven yellow strokes.

Teenage Peter and Loki both watched as the Parker boys' painted the room, teasing each other whenever they got the chance. Teenage Peter remembered this and the gigantic mess they made at the end of it. Just thinking of what was coming up was enough to put a smile on his face.

Somehow, Ben ended up picking up Peter and holding him up so he could reach up towards the ceiling more. It worked for a bit, but considering the paintbrush was made for a grown person and not a three-and-a-half-year-old, Peter ended up dropping the brush, making it land right on Ben's forehead.

"Oops." Peter whispers, trying not to giggle at the yellow paint splattered on the man.

"Oh, that's it." Ben says, setting Peter down to grab his paintbrush and attempt to splatter paint on the toddler.

"No, Ben!" Peter squeals with laughter as he gets hit with the paint, grabbing one of the spare paintbrushes and joining in on the paint war that was happening.

Between the Parker boys' laughter and shouts, they both didn't hear the front door open and close until they heard a familiar voice from the open bedroom door.

"What in the world is going on here?" May shouts, still in her scrubs and staring at Ben, who was holding a still giggling Peter upside down. Both boys stopped completely in their tracks and making them both look like a deer caught in headlights.

"Uhh... Hey... Honey." Ben slowly says, flipping Peter so he was in his arms right side up again. "We were just painting Peter's room." Ben says, as if that would make his case any better.

"I can see that, even though I specifically told you _not _to. What I'm more concerned about is why you're both _covered_ in the paint. Ben it's all in Peter's hair! That's going to be awful during bath time to get out." May begins to scold, watching as Ben set Peter back on his feet and began to walk towards her. What she didn't notice was the paint brush still in her husband's hand.

"I'm sorry, I know you said no, but I think this was a good way to make the room more Peter's room. And I will deal with bath time." Ben says, releasing some of the tension in May.

"You better." She playfully says, a small smile tugging at her lips as she goes to quickly kiss Ben. Instead of a kiss though, she got a cheek covered in paint.

All May could do was gasp and stare at her husband, who was giggling along with Peter, in shock.

"Oh, you're so in trouble." May threatens, grabbing a brush and effectively joining in on the paint fight.

"Uh oh, Pete, we better run." Ben warns before all three of them began to throw paint around the room once again.

"Your family seemed great." Loki comments once the memory started to wind down.

"Yeah... they were." Peter agreed, giving the God a sad smile. Loki just nodded towards the door, signaling that it was time for another bad memory.

_'Please, please, please, don't be Skip.' _Was all Peter could think as he followed Loki out the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So if you thought this was bad, honestly it's just the calm before the storm... The next chapter is so much worse... Also not a lot of people know that it's canon that the Parkers worked for Fury and (just like with Nat) I love the idea of him being practically family with them. So... you can rip that head cannon from my cold dead hands haha


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki learns about one of Peter's biggest demons; Skip Wescott. Also, about how they young boy met Tony for the first time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> READ THIS BEFORE CONTINUING!!!!
> 
> MAJOR MAJOR TRIGGEER WARNING IN THIS CHAPTER: SEXUAL ASSAULT TO A MINOR AND A PANIC ATTACK!!!!
> 
> Nothing too graphic because I cannot bring myself to do that, being someone that's been sexually assaulted, but that doesn't mean it's any less triggering!!!!
> 
> Please, please, PLEASE BE SAFE reading this and avoid if you have to!!1 I will put a line in between the bad memory an the good memory so you know what to avoid if you still want to read the fluff!!!

They quickly found themselves in a library, Peter instantly looking down at the new clothes he was wearing in hope that it would give him a hint. He felt himself wearing glasses, so he knew that he, at least, was older than six, but he was just wearing a typical green sweater and jeans, so that gave him nothing. 

Loki and Peter started to walk around the library a bit, Peter trying to wrack his brain for what could be happening; he tended to spend most of his time in this particular library, so anything could really be happening. 

They ended up walking past a couple of newspapers and magazines, pictures of Tony Stark plastered on all of them. Peter instantly walked over to read the covers, seeing that it was when Tony came out as Iron Man.

"It's late October, 2008." Peter says, Loki looking down at the magazines also.

"Okay, so what happened around that time then?" Loki ask, not noticing the way Peter froze up next to him. At least, until he heard the teen's breathing begin to pick up. "Child?" 

"I-I can't d-do this one. I-I-I r-really can't d-do this one. Please d-don't make me, _please_." Peter practically begs, his breathing become even more erratic. 

"Child, you know that's not how it works. You have to do this." Loki tells him, unsure of what to do right now; Peter was practically gasping for air at this point. "Here, child, just sit down for a second." Loki says, helping lower Peter to the floor. All Peter could do was stare at a bunch of tables with different kinds of people studying. 

"Child, you need to calm down. Just remember that this is a memory." Loki tried to console, realizing that if Peter didn't start breathing normally, he would pass out; which would only weaken his soul and give the Mare an even bigger chance to consume all of it. 

"Oh, help me now." Loki says, quickly wrapping his arm around Peter and bringing him close, putting one hand over his eyes. Almost instantly, Peter started to calm down and his breathing slowly evened out.

"What... Wh-What did you just do to me?" Peter asks, a little breathless. 

"I used my magic to calm you. Unless you want the creature to consume your soul completely." Loki says, Peter shaking his head before being released. "Now, I understand this is difficult for you, child, but you must get through it." 

"I-I-I c-can't." Peter repeated, staring down at his shaking hands. 

"Child, it'll be aright. Just remember that this is just a memory, you cannot be harmed in anyway." Loki continues his attempt at comforting, and considering he's completely out of his depth here, he thought he was doing pretty well.

"B-But just the memory of it hurts me. N-Not physically, not anymore, but it _does hurt me._ It _still _hurts me, and I don't think it'll ever stop." Peter whimpers, wishing the Earth would just swallow him up right then and there.

"Okay, how about this; that's you sitting there at the table, correct?" Loki asks, pointing at the table in the corner where a newly turned seven-year-old Peter was sitting and reading.

"Y-Yes."

"Was it a person that hurt you?" Loki continues to ask, figuring if they get to what the actual situation was, it would be easier for Peter to talk about it. All he got in return, though, was a shaky nod.

"Are they here right now?" Another nod.

"Do they hurt you here?" A head shake.

"Do they physically hurt you?" A nod.

"Do they fight you? Is there someone here that doesn't like you so they beat you?" Loki continues asking, Peter closing his eyes tightly as the tears fall, shaking his head. 

Loki couldn't help it when his heart sunk. He now had an idea of what happened to Peter, and he hated that he was going to have to force it out of him.

"Child... you need to explain or it's not going to start. You will die if you do not get to your body soon." Loki says, making Peter look up and take a stuttering breath. 

"Y-You see that teenager over by the bookshelf? The one with grey hair?" Peter asks, pointing at the exact guy. 

"Yes." Loki confirms.

"His name is S-Steven Wescott; S-Skip t-to his... f-friends. He was my first fr-friend, or, at least, I _thought_ he was my friend. He was cool. W-We would hang out at th-the library all the time, he would h-help me with my science projects, h-he would walk me home; he was like an older brother to me," Peter begins, swallowing hard in order to push the bile back down his throat.

"Th-Then one day, w-we were hanging out a-a-and h-he... t-touched... me.... in p-places that I d-didn't want to be t-touched. He molested me." As soon as Peter spit out the last words, everything came to life.

Seven-year-old Peter had his nose literally in the book, his eyes scanning the pages as if his life depended on it. Teenage Peter remembered exactly what he was reading. It was a book about the Theory of Relativity. He was reading up on it because he realized how little he actually knew about it; even though it's not a typical thing for a seven-year-old to know about. 

Teenage Peter and Loki both slowly got off the ground and began making their way over to the - still - small boy; Loki keeping no further than an arms length away in fear that Peter would drop at any moment. 

Once they made it to the little boy, a voice, that Peter could only wish he could forget, chimes in.

"Excuse me, is this seat taken?" Skip asks, pulling the seven-year-old's attention off his book. 

"Uhh… n-no." Peter stutters out, unsure of what to do as the teen sat down next to him. He was never good at making friends, especially if they were older than he was. People just thought he weird and too smart for his own good.

"Say, haven't I seen you around here before? You're the kid whose nose is always buried in a textbook," Skip says, Peter instantly blushing and curling in on himself. "My name's Steven, but you can call me Skip."

"Um... H-Hi, Skip. I'm Peter. Peter Parker." Peter introduces, giving a shy smile and shaking Skip's hand when it was offered. 

"Watcha reading now?" Skip asks, making Peter hesitate at first. Typically people would only want to know about what he was learning to make fun of him, but Skip seemed genuinely curious.

Peter slowly began to explain the Theory of Relativity to Skip, getting fully excited when he realized Skip was actually listening to him instead of mocking him. Peter just finished his gigantic rant, causing Skip to laugh when he saw the kid was slightly winded. 

"Wow, aren't you just a little Einstein." Skip chuckles, Pete giving a small smile and looking towards the clock on the wall. A soon as he saw the time, he quickly stood up and began to pack his book away. 

"I'm sorry, but I have to go. I'm going to be late for dinner, and if I'm late again my Uncle won't hesitate to search for me." Seven-year-old Peter hurriedly says, a disappointed frown forming on both Teenage Peter and Skip's face.

"Of course you don't mention he's a cop. You should have finished that sentence, dumbass! You should have told him that Ben wouldn't hesitate to search for you _in his cop car!_ Then he would have left you alone!" Peter all but shouts at his younger self, despite the fact that he couldn't hear him. 

"Here, which way do you live? I've never walked Einstein home before." Skip offers, Peter stopping in his tracks. 

"You don't have to, Skip." Peter politely declines, Skip shaking his head in return. 

"I want to! Einstein, this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!" Skip declares, Peter giving him a genuine smile for the first time as they begin to walk out of the library. 

Teenage Peter and Loki had no option but to follow and Loki wished with all of his heart that something like this didn't happen to such a young and innocent child. 

"So, are you going to be at the library again tomorrow?" Skip asks, Peter shaking his head and sighing. 

"No, I have a science project due." Peter says, the disappointment clear in his voice. 

"'Well, I may not be an Einstein like you, but if you come over to my house tomorrow I could help you with it." Skip offers, Peter's face instantly lighting up. 

"Really?" Peter excitedly asks as they stop in front of his apartment building. 

"Yeah! My parents are divorced, so it's just me and my mom and she typically works late. We'll have the whole house to ourselves; that way it'll be nice and quiet so we can concentrate." Skip tells the young boy, making him practically bounce on his toes.

"Okay! I'll see you tomorrow, then!" Peter replies.

"See you tomorrow, Einstein." 

Almost instantly, the scenery changed. Now, Skip and Peter were walking up the stairs to Peter's apartment, their clothes changed to show it was the next day; along with Peter carrying his science project. 

"Thank you for helping me with my science project, Skip." Peter says, May opening the door at the sound of Peter's voice.

"See you tomorrow, Einstein." Skip says before nodding towards May and walking back down the stairs.

"Who was that, honey?" May asks as Peter walks into the apartment.

"That was my friend Skip! He's super nice and helpful, he even helped me with my science project!" Peter explains, being extra careful when he sat the box that contained everything for his science project.

"Y-You made a friend?" May asks in disbelief. She has been practically waiting for this day. She was always so worried about the fact that Peter hadn't managed to make any friends yet, so to hear that he finally had one was practically music to her ears.

"Yeah! And he invited me back over to his house tomorrow to teach me how to play pool. Is it okay if I go? Please, please, _please_?" Petr practically begged, even though the answer was 'yes' before he even finished asking. 

"Of course, baby. Just be back before dinner and-" Before May could even finish, Peter threw himself into her arms and just about squeezed the breath out of her. 

All teenage Peter could do was close his eyes and hope his nausea would go away. Just thinking about how excited he was to go over to that child predator's house made him sick, but to actually see it made him feel worse. It doesn't help with the thought that he had what was coming to him; a thought that took years for him to expel from his mind, and still occasionally occurred. 

"Child?" Loki asks, knowing better than to actually ask if Peter was alright. No one would be alright having to relive this. 

"Just... give me a second, _please_. I know what happens next, I know what happens when I go to his house. I need a moment to just... prepare myself." Peter says, Loki nodding in understandment. 

As soon as Peter compose himself and opened his eyes, they were in Skip's basement, watching as seven-year-old Peter lined up a shot on the pool table. 

"This game reminds me our solar system! The cue ball represent the sun, the other balls are the planets, and-" The young boy begins to ramble, Skip being quick to cut him off.

"Don't you ever stop thinking, Einstein?" Skip asks, effectively getting Peter to stop talking and look down in embarrassment. "Hey, I have something to show you that's guaranteed to take your mind off science!" Skip excitedly says, signaling for Peter to follow him upstairs.

They all walked up stairs to Skip's room, everything feeling like it was now going in slow motion for teenage Peter. His heart felt like it was a hummingbird's. He tried taking a deep breath to slow it down, but that just made his nausea worse; he felt like he was drowning.

Skip pointed at the couch that was in his room, Peter going over there and plopping down as the grey-haired teen went into his closet and pulled out one of many magazines.

Without saying anything he handed the magazine to Peter, who quickly opened it, only to shut it almost as fast. Inside was multiple pornographic pictures that Peter knew he should have never seen. They made him blush a crimson red just by getting a glance of what was inside.

"Bet you've never seen pictures like those in a stuffy textbook." Skip teases as he forces Peter to open the magazine back up.

"U-Uh, n-no." Peter stutters, looking away when Skip flipped the page to a female and male touching each other sexually.

"Come on, Einstein, let's conduct a little experiment of our own. Let's see if we can touch each other like the people in that magazine." Skip says, scooting close enough to be touching the boy from shoulder to foot.

"Please, Skip, _don't_. I-I've got to go now." Peter says, Skip grabbing his wrist to keep him in place; even though he was too afraid to go anywhere anyways.

"Oh, come on, I thought you were a little scientist. Don't scientists conduct different types of experiments all the time?" Skip continues to press.

"I-I-I have t-to be home f-for dinner. M-My Aunt and Uncle w-will worry i-if I don't. " Peter says, hoping by bringing his guardians up it'll stop the teen.

"Yeah, but that's not for another hour. We have plenty of time." Skip says, teenage Peter's knees finally giving out and making him crash to the floor.

"Please, _please,_ do something, _anything!_" He begins to beg to his younger self, even though he already knew the damage was done. "Get up and run, scream as loud as you can, kick him, bite him, please just do anything but sit there and let him!" Peter screams watching as Skip forcibly held his younger self down.

Peter was forced to watch everything all over again. He had to watch as Skip took off both their pants and touch him in a way no seven-year-old should ever have to be touched. Even now, teenage Peter felt frozen. He still felt like he couldn't do anything. He could move, he could breathe, he couldn't blink, he was a ghost of his former and younger self.

When it was all over both Peter's were left sobbing. Teenage Peter couldn't help but curl up into a ball on the floor, just as young Peter curled up on a ball on the couch. And they both just... sobbed.

Teenage Peter sobbed until he couldn't even breathe anymore, mourning the loss of his innocence once again. The only difference this time was that Loki was there to comfort him.

The God couldn't bring himself to avoid contact with the child, even if he didn't know what he was doing, after what he just watched. He wrapped Peter up into his arms, allowing the teenager to sob into his shoulder. Loki honestly felt sick. How could humans like that actually live in the world? He was just glad that the memory was over. He would gladly give Peter a happy memory as soon as he calmed down.

Before Peter even gave himself a chance to breathe, he pulled away from Loki and glared at the frozen image of Skip with the most evil look anyone has ever seen come from Peter Parker.

"I fucking hate you." He whispers, aiming the message to the vile man sitting and smiling on the couch.

"I fucking _HATE YOU_!" Peter screams this time, Loki just pulling away and allowing him to yell. He figured Peter had this bottled up for a long time and that it was good for him to get it out now. "You took everything away from me! _EVERYTHING_! Fuck you! Fuck you for ripping my childhood away from me like that! I fucking hate you! _FUCK YOU!_" Peter continues to scream, Loki pulling him back into his arms when he became breathless again.

Loki allowed Peter to cry in his arms a little longer, until the boy slowly started to calm down, to finally ask the question that's been nagging at him.

"What happened to him?" He asks, Peter slowly pulling away to look at the God with confusion. "To Wescott. What happened to him?" Loki clarifies, Peter taking in a stuttering breath before attempting to wipe all the tears off his face.

"M-May asked me w-why I stopped h-hanging out w-with him a-and I told her; and Ben. Because Ben was a cop, he -uh- he quickly went and arrested S-Skip. And h-here on Earth, th-the people in prison don't take kindly to child predators... Uncle Ben got the message about a month later that S-Skip w-was killed in his cell." Peter says, Loki sighing in relief.

"I'm glad he's dead." The God plainly says, Peter just nodding and muttering a small 'yeah'.

"Ready for the good memory I found?" Loki asks, get a tension-releasing exhale in return.

"Fucking hell, I've been ready." Peter says, Loki helping them both up and out of the room and back into the living room.

* * *

When they walked out the door, they found themselves right back in Peter's old apartment; May and Ben standing in the kitchen just like the first memory.

Peter had no idea what this memory could be of. His clothes were the same old hand-me-downs he wore throughout his entire childhood, but his glasses were broke down the middle, so he had to be close to nine-years-old.

"Ben, I'm telling you, the answer is _no._" May sternly says, crossing her arms and leaning against the counter.

"May, you know how excited he's been about the expo. It's the only thing he talks about anymore, I swear." Ben says, it quickly dawning on Peter what the memory was about. It was the Stark Expo; the first time he met Tony. Unofficially, but he still counts it. 

"'Ben, we _just _got the heat turned back on, we can not afford tickets to the expo; we can _not_ risk Peter living without heat again." May reminds, making teenage Peter look down. He forgot how hard it was after they arrested Skip. 

They had to go to trial, which required a lawyer, which took most of their money and caused them to get a bit behind on bills. They were just starting to catch up around this time. 

"I know, I know, but, May, when is the last time you've seen that boy smile? When is the last time you've seen him this excited about something?" Ben tries to argue, May only being able to give a sad smile before arguing more.

"'It's been a while, I know, and as much as I would love to keep that little smile on his face, we can't risk it. We don't have the money, it has to go to the rest of our bills." 

"What about his birthday money?" Ben asks, May giving him a look that showed him how crazy of a notion that was.

"Benjamin, no! We have been saving up for a year so we could actually enjoy his birthday this year, you are _not_ using it." May sternly says.

"We can make sure he knows it's for his birthday. We can explain it to him that it's an early birthday gift and then when his actual birthday comes we can have a movie night or something small to celebrate." Ben continues to push, May giving him an unsure look in return.

"I don't know, Ben... You know Fury said that Stark isn't stable right now, and the Expo might not be a good idea. I don't want Peter anywhere near that man." May continues to hesitate, making teenage Peter chuckle a bit. 

It still amused him that despite May not liking Tony at all throughout Peter's childhood, she still trusted him enough to keep him safe as a superhero, and now as his adoptive son.

"The day Peter wants to go, Stark won't even be there." Ben counters, which didn't really help his case much.

"Then why does Peter want to go to the _Stark _Expo if Tony _Stark _isn't even going to be there? May asks as eight-year-old Peter bounces into the room. 

"Because Justin Hammer is going to be there." He says, climbing up to sit on the kitchen counters. 

"Who's Justin Hammer?" May asks, not really being able to keep up with all of these inventors that Peter was interested in. 

"He own Hammer Industries! He's terrible at what he does; everything he builds blows up!" Peter says, his voice still extremely chipper.

"Then why would you want to go see him? That sounds dangerous." May continues.

"_Because _I want to see what he's presenting. I like to see what he builds and what his mistakes were and see if I can fix them on my computer." Peter answers, both guardians looking at him with confusion.

"Computer? We don't have a computer." May points out, getting an exasperated look from the small child in return.

"I made it. Remember when I brought all of the old VCR players and scrap technology pieces home from the junkyard? I used them to build myself a computer." Peter explains, both guardians giving each other baffled looks. 

"Does it work?" Ben asks, May rolling her eyes knowing that the conversation was going to get well away from them now that Peter is talking about something he built.

"Yeah! I mean, it's clunky like a Triumph Adler TA-1600, but it works just like Microsoft would." Peter boasts, bouncing up and down in his seat excitedly.

"Well, your Aunt and I have to finish our conversation, but, when we're done, I'll come in and you can show it off to me, sound good?" Ben offers, Peter quickly agreeing and running off to his room. May and Ben just stared at each other until they heard Peter's door click shut.

"Richard." They both say, laughing a bit at how much Peter was like his Father.

"I honestly have no idea what he said. I have no clue what a turbo-thingamajig is." May comments, still chuckling.

"Which is why he needs to go to this Expo, May. Richard was the one to get the brains in the family, you know this, you know we're not nearly as smart as Peter is; we can't understand anything he says. He deserves to be around people that understand what he's talking about." Ben tries to argue again, hoping that was a big enough guilt-trip to work. 

"When is it?" May asks, Ben smirking a bit when he saw that she was slowly breaking.

"This Wednesday."

"If, _if, _Peter agrees to doing this as an early birthday gift, then I guess he can go. I have a double shift so I won't be here when you guys leave, but I should be back before you guys." May gives in, Ben giving her a huge smile before kissing her. 

"You're amazing." Ben compliments, getting a playful eye roll and smack on his arm in return.

"You're just happy because you got your way, big baby," May teases, laughing at the feigned hurt look Ben put on. "Now, go tell our boy what's happening." May says, practically shooing Ben away. 

Ben quickly walked over to Peter's bedroom, knocking and walking in when he heard the muffled "come in". 

Eight-and-a-half-year-old Peter was sitting on his bedroom floor, tools spread all around him. Ben couldn't help but look at what Peter was building, only to see what looked like an Iron Man repulsor.

"Whatcha working on, Petey?" Ben asks, groaning as he crouched down and sat next to Peter on the floor. 

"I'm making an Iron Man repulsor! But since Aunt May banned things that can ruin furniture after the whole 'piranha solution being spilled on the couch and eating through the cushion' incident, it just works as a taser." Young Peter explains, making teenager Peter laugh at the memory.

"Piranha solution?" Loki asks, not even sure if he wanted to know.

"Yeah, it's a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and sulfuric acid, and if it's done right, it'll eat through anything. I kind of read an article about it and tried it myself, but because I was such a klutz I dropped it on the couch and it ate through the whole cushion. Uncle Ben was impressed but Aunt May was not having it." Peter tells the God, not being able to hide the chuckles that passed through his lips.

"Well, speaking of Iron Man, the Expo is coming up and-" Ben begins, young Peter gasping and looking at his Uncle wide-eyed as he cut him off.

"Are we going?" 

"_If_ you understand that this is your birthday gift, okay? When your birthday comes up in August, we'll just have a little movie night and-" Ben begins to ramble, stopping when the wind got knocked out of him due to Peter throwing his weight onto him in a crushing hug.

"Thank you, thank you, _thank you!_" Peter practically squeals, hugging his Uncle as tight as he could. The last thing teenage Peter saw before the scenery changed was Ben chuckling and holding Peter close to him. 

In the blink of an eye the scene changed and Peter and Loki were now sitting in a crowd of people, everyone cheering as Justin Hammer introduced the Hammer drones and Colonel Rhodes. Teenage Peter couldn't help but chuckle at the glimmer in his younger self's eyes, knowing for a fact that he was running equation after equation in his head. 

"Get ready for the most exciting presentation you'll ever see in your entire life." Teenager Peter whispers to Loki, getting aa wary look in return. 

"Uncle Ben, could you imagine having one of those when you were in the military?" Eight-year-old Peter asks, his Uncle not even being able to answer due to the fact that a rumbling was now coming from the back of the building. Before he could even get worried and scoop Peter up, Tony Stark himself landed on the stage, clad in his Iron Man suit. 

As soon as he landed, everyone started cheering while Justin Hammer awkwardly hyped them all up. Peter was literally bouncing, not being able to believe that he got lucky enough to go to the night Tony Stark made a surprise appearance. 

The excitement soon died down though, when the Hammer drones began to raise their weaponed arms. As soon as Justin Hammer ran off the stage, and Tony Stark flew in the air, chaos ensued. Everyone began to run as the Hammer drones began to shoot the glass ceiling and chased after Tony. 

Ben quickly grabbed Peter's hand and began to run along with all of the other people from the crowd, wanting to get as far from there as possible. Somehow, during all of the mayhem, Peter's hand slipped out of his Uncle's, making him lost within the crowd.

"Uncle Ben?! Uncle Ben!" Peter screamed, looking all around him to try and catch a glimpse of where his Uncle could be. He knew that if he ever got lost, he should stay put, but with all of the glass and bullets raining down on him, he couldn't help but run outside. He would have a better chance at finding his Uncle once he was safe. 

Peter quickly ran outside and down the concrete steps, looking all around him as people scurried to safety. 

"If I'm lost, stay in one place, if I'm lost, stay in one place. Uncle Ben will find me, he _will_ find me." Peter chanted to himself, trying to calm himself down and convince himself that he was okay. He was trying to be brave, but he couldn't help the tears that started to stream down his face as he looked at the disorder all around him. 

He quickly grabbed the Iron Man mask that was sitting on the top of his head and put it on, hoping that it would give him the confidence; after all, no one was braver than Iron man. 

Peter watched as a drone began walking his way, unsure of what to do. He quickly glanced down at the gauntlet he was wearing, remembering that he turned it into a taser and that he was protected. The drone aimed it's gun towards Peter as he lifted his taser repulsor, both initiating their own little stand off; that was, until Tony showed up.

He quickly flew behind Peter, shooting and effectively destroying the drone, giving the illusion that Peter was the one that did it. 

"Nice work, Kid." Tony compliments, before flying off.

Peter quickly took his mask off, the tears long gone as a face-splitting smile forming as he watched Iron man continue to save the day. 

"Peter! Peter Benjamin!" Peter hears his Uncle shout, making him turn around towards the voice. Before he could even do anything, Ben quickly ran over to him and scooped him up into his arms. 

"Uncle Ben, Uncle Ben! Did you see that? Iron Man saved me!" Peter exclaims, Ben absentmindedly nodding a he quickly ran away from everything. 

"Yeah, Yeah, that's cool, Petey. Hey, we're not going to tell your Aunt about this, okay? If she asks, we left so I could spoil you with ice cream before any of this happened. We weren't here, got it?" Ben tells Peter, who just gave a hurried nod. "Lord knows she's going to kill me if she finds out what happened tonight, I could only imagine what would happen if she found out we were here for it _and _I lost you."

"She would get Uncle Fury to help." Peter can't help but giggle, reminding Ben that Fury had even warned them that Stark was a bit dangerous these days. All Ben could do was groan as his pace began to slow down now that he was down the street from the Expo.

"It's okay, Uncle Ben, I won't tell." Peter reassures, making Ben sigh in relief. "As long as we can actually get some ice cream." Peter adds, making his Uncle shake his head and chuckle, effectively ending the good memory. 

"Child, why is _that_ in your good memories? That was traumatic." Loki asks, making teenage Peter scoff. 

"Are you kidding me? Did you miss the part where my literal hero not only saved me, but talked to me? That was the greatest thing to ever happen to me!" Peter says, Loki shaking his head in response. The child needed a new definition of what "good" actually was. 

'I'm just confused on why the machine tried attacking you; a literal baby." Loki comments, Peter only shrugging before trying to explain.

"I don't actually know. I think it's because they were being coded to attack whenever they saw Iron Man. Since I was wearing an Iron Man mask and make-shift repulsor, it probably thought I was actually Tony. Like my younger-self said, Justin Hammer was _not _good at what he did." Peter explains, chuckling at the end. Loki just shook his head again, and allowed the corners of his lips to lift into the tiniest of smiles; although he would deny it if anyone asked.

"Ready to continue on?" The God asks as they got to the end of the street, Peter looking down and nodding at his feet.

He could only imagine what was coming up next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a lot of people don't know this, but in the comics, Peter was actually molested by Skip. They made the comic mainly to tell people that it was okay to speak up and tell someone if something like that happens. The only difference between the comic and what I wrote is that in the comic Peter told Ben and May too late and by then Skip was gone without a trace and was never found, so of course I took it in my hands and killed him off like he deserved.
> 
> As for the next chapter, all I can say is you didn't expect me to not hurt Loki throughout this whole thing, did you?


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki learns that when he was forced to attack New York, the Avengers weren't the only ones to be hurt by who he killed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please read the note at the end of this chapter.

As soon as they crossed the street, the insanity they left behind was now surrounding them. Buildings and streets were destroyed, there were people who appeared to be screaming, and a gigantic worm hole in the sky. Teenage Peter turned around to see his younger self laying in the ground in an alley with tears and fear in his eyes; the familiar sight of Ben's cop car down the road behind him. 

Peter honestly didn't even need to look around to know what memory this was; the big worm hole in the sky kind of gave it away.

It was the Battle of New York. 

Peter looked over at Loki, sympathy flowing out of the teen like waves as he stared at the God. Peter knew it wasn't easy for Loki to live with what he did, Thor told them all the time about how his brother had no control over what he was doing. Peter knew that even though Loki pretended not to have feelings, this was eating him up alive and he regretted all of it. 

"Do you know what this is?" Peter asks, Loki giving a small nod as he looked around the frozen mayhem. "I'm sorry this is one of them, I honestly didn't think it would a bad memory considering I've been through way worse." Peter apologise, wishing there was a way for them to get back to his body while avoiding this memory. 

"It is fine. You still have to tell me what this memory is." Loki says, Peter looking down at the ground and sighing. 

"This is the attack on New York and the day my Uncle Phil was killed." Peter explains, screams filling the air right after. Loki and Peter turned to see young Peter trip and fall, practically eating the concrete beneath him. 

"Peter! Peter Benjamin!" Ben screamed, barely waiting for his car to stop before jumping out and running to his nephew. 

"Uncle Ben! I-I don't know what's happening! W-We were walking into the museum and then we heard shouting and then buildings started breaking so we all ran and got separated and-" Peter begins to ramble, Ben quickly cutting him off with a tight bear hug.

"We need to go to the apartment, now." Ben swiftly says, continuing to hold Peter close to his chest as he all but ran back to his car.

"Where's Aunt May? Is she safe?" Peter worryingly asks as he climbed into the car. 

"She's safe, Pete, she's stuck at the hospital because there's a bunch of people being admitted right now." Ben explains, the scene changing as he drove off.

Peter and Loki were now watching as Ben ran up the stairs to the apartment, practically dragging eleven-year-old Peter behind him. 

"Now, Pete, all precincts are being called in to help with crowd control, so I need you to hide under the table and _do not_ leave or come out no matter what!" Ben demands, dragging a protesting Peter to the kitchen table. 

"No! You can't leave, it's not safe out there!" Peter shouts, trying to drag Ben down with him when he attempted to push the young boy under the table.

"Petey, I have to, it's my job. You'll be safe if you just stay here." Ben tries again, Peter tightly grabbing both of his hands and sitting down in front of the table, hoping that his weight would be enough to stop his Uncle.

"No! You can't go, you're going to get seriously hurt!" Peter continues to shout, getting dragged across the floor when Ben tried to pull his hands away. 

"Peter Benjamin, let go, _now. _There are people out there that need my help. It's my job to help keep people alive." Ben sternly says, finally managing to rip his hands away.

"I don't care! Screw what the people need, _I _need you! Alive! Please don't leave, Ben, you could die out there and I can't do that again. I don't _want_ to do that again." Peter cries now, Ben softening as he bends down in front of the small pre-teen. 

"Petey...," Ben sighs out, unsure of what to say to that. Sometimes he would forget how mature and perceptive Peter could really be. 

"I don't want you to end up like my parents. They went out to do their jobs and they never came back." Peter continues, his voice growing smaller. 

Very rarely, if not at all, do they talk aboout Richard and Mary's death. They still talked about them, it's hard not to when Peter was so much like both of them, but they never talked about the mission gone wrong. 

"Peter, Petey, Son, listen to me. What happened to Richie and Mary, your mommy and daddy, will _never_ happen to me. I'm trained to deal with terroist attacks like this, Petey, I know what I'm doing and I'll have more than enough backup. You _do not _have to worry about me not coming back. I will always come back to you." Ben promises, even though it wasn't something he should be promising. He honestly had no idea what was going to happen. 

"Please come back." Peter begs, wiping the tears off of his face. 

"I promise. But, now, I need you to promise that you're going to hide under the table no matter what." Ben counters, sighing in relief when Peter nodded and scooted backwards under the table. "I love you, Petey. I'll be back so stay hidden." Ben repeats, giving one more short glance before running to the front door and locking it from the inside.

"He just... left you? A _baby_, all alone." Loki says, not even bothering to mask the disgust in his voice. Didn't this man understand how dangerous he was at this time? He wasn't in his right mind, he killed so many people, and this man just left this child to be on their own. 

"Yeah, but I was fine. I was in a building in Queens and you...," Peter hesitated, not being able to ignore the flash of hurt and guilt the crossed Loki's face. "...were at Stark tower in Manhattan. It was far enough away so my Uncle trusted that I would listen and stay hidden." Peter explains, turning his attention to his younger self and watching as he quickly ran out from underneath the table.

Loki just glared at teenage Peter, who at least had the decency to look sheepish. 

"Never said I listened." Peter mumbles, watching as his younger double checked that the door was locked, and quickly run to the window. He made sure both windows were locked before looking out and catching a glimpse of the giant black hole a few cities away. 

The whole building began to shake, almost like an earthquake, making Peter quickly grab the television remote and run back under the table. He held onto the table's legs for dear life, closing his eyes and begging for all of it to stop soon; mainly so Ben could also be safe in a building.

After the building stopped shaking, Peter opened his eyes, waiting a bit before letting out the breath he was holding and turning on the television. If he was too far to see exactly what was happening from the window, he was just going to have to watch it on the news. 

He quickly flipped to the first news station he could find, letting out a little sigh of relief when he saw that Iron Man and a bunch of other people he didn't quite recognize was on there. He at least recognized the Hulk, it was hard not to when the memory of the Hulk in Harlem still rang fresh through his mind.

He also recognized the red-haired woman there. He didn't know her name, or anything really about her, but he knows that she was the one that took over his mom's job; same with the blonde with a bow, he knew that he took over his dad's job. Of course he recognized Captain America also. How could he not with all of the PSA's he was forced to endure during school. 

The building began to shake once again, making Peter quickly grab a hold of the table leg. He couldn't stop the whimper that came out of his mouth when the shaking caused one of the pictures on the wall to fall.

"Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry." He whispers over and over again to himself, slowly opening his eyes that were now filled with tears. 

“It’s okay, I’m okay, I’m safe.” Peter tries to remind himself. “You’re eleven, not a baby, don’t act like a baby. Strong people don’t cry and you’re strong. All you need to do is find a weapon to protect yourself with. Yeah, a weapon.” Peter murmurs to himself, looking around the apartment, that was slowly starting to shake even worse.

Peter let out a whimper, clearly not wanting to leave the safety of the table once again, so he quickly glanced at the wall behind him, seeing something from the kitchen counter plugged in.

“Please be the coffee pot, please be the coffee pot, please be the coffee pot.” Peter begs, slowly scooting towards the wall, making sure his body is still covered by the kitchen table. He quickly grabbed the plug and began to pull on it, bringing whatever was it was connected to crashing to the ground.

Peter quickly began to pull it to him, letting out a noise of disappointment when he realized what he managed to grab.

“The _toaster_?_ Really_? This is practically useless.” Peter mutters, rolling his eyes as he hugs the toaster to his chest. He sat there a bit, defeated, as he watched the bunch of heroes fight the alien like creatures. He got so caught up in watching the battle, that he completely lost his awareness of his surroundings. That was, until he heard the locks on the front door begin to jiggle.

Quickly holding his breath, Peter began to slowly crawl under the table, peeking his head out to see what was happening.

When the handle began to turn, Peter grabbed the toaster and got into a fighting stance, ready to fight whatever creature came through the door.

“Toaster, don’t fail me now.” Peter whispers, instantly throwing the toaster at the door when it opened. Thankfully the toaster hit the wall, and fell to the floor in a broken heap, because as soon as it did a familiar voice let out a surprised shout.

“Peter Benjamin!” May yells, Peter instantly slumping and relaxing at her voice, even though he was most definitely going to get in trouble for destroying the toaster.

“Sorry! I thought you were one of the creatures from the news!” He defends, May deeming it safe to walk in and being quick to do so. “How did you even get here?” Peter asks as May locks the door and shakes her head at the toaster.

“When I told my head nurse that you were here all alone, she allowed me to come back to make sure you were safe. Ben snuck away to pick me up and he dropped me off.” May explains.

“Ben’s here? And you let him go back out there! We have to go, now, and make him come back in here before he drives off!” Peter shouts, running towards the door, only to be stopped by May grabbing him by his middle.

“Peter, no, Ben has to go out there and do his job. He’s out there keeping people safe.” May says, practically dragging the boy back.

“But he doesn’t need to! Tony Stark is out there! Iron man is out there! He’s keeping everyone-“ Peter tries to fight, instantly cutting himself off when he turned to the television to prove to May that Tony was there. But, instead of the news proving that Tony was in control, the news was now showing Tony Stark flying a missile into the giant wormhole in the sky.

“No! May! He-He can’t go up there, he won’t be able to breathe!” Peter shouts, May putting her hand over Peter’s eyes and pushing him back over to the table. Just because she didn’t like Tony, or even the fact that he was Peter’s role model, doesn’t mean that she wasn’t going to protect Peter from the heartbreak of watching his hero dying.

“May.” Peter tries to fight, trying to push her hand off his eyes so he could see, not that he would be able to through the tears, but somehow she managed to use this to her advantage and pull Peter in her lap, hiding his face in the crook of her neck.

“Don’t watch this, baby. Don’t watch.” May demands, her heartbreaking as she mutes the television so Peter wouldn’t hear all the people shouting about how Tony Stark was now falling out of the sky, unmoving. Somehow, Peter managed to peek an eye out, and caught a glimpse of the Hulk catching Tony right out of the sky.

That was the last straw.

The stress of not knowing what was going on, the stress of not knowing what was going to happen to his Uncle, and the stress of seeing his role model lay limp on the ground soon became too much for Peter’s eleven-year-old brain.

He instantly began sobbing, finally breaking and allowing May to cradle his head close to her. He no longer cared about trying to seem brave and he allowed himself to be babied now that he had his Aunt – his mother-figure – here with him.

She rocked them both back and forth, whisper sweet nothings in his ear in attempt to calm him down.

It took a while. The news station quickly turned it’s focus on something else, not wanting to film all the heroes anymore just in case they were really mourning one of their fallen, so no one really knew if Tony Stark was alive or not. Eventually, though, everything seemed to slowly begin to get better.

May and Peter stayed under the table, May continuing to rock them back and forth, long after Peter stopped crying, when May got the text.

“Petey, Ben’s on his way home. He says he’s fine, just a small cut on his arm.” May tells the pre-teen, getting a small, tired, smile in return.

May slowly got them both up to their feet, telling Peter that it would be a more comfortable to wait on the couch now that the worst seemed to be done. When she finally got Peter situated, she noticed the new banner that was across the news screen, making her quickly grab the remote and unmute the television.

_“Again, we have report that Tony Stark is alive and well.”_

“See, Petey? Everything’s okay now. It’s all going to be okay now.” May says, sitting down on the couch and pulling the small boy back into her lap.

Teenage Peter and Loki both were quiet as the scene in front of them began to change. Peter didn't really know what to say. This wasn't necessarily a bad memory for him, it was just stressful, and compared to everything else he's been through, this really wasn't a bad memory; at least for him. He hated that Loki was being forced to see how much he hurt everyone, including those who weren't Avengers. 

Now, it was clearly later in the day, the apartment being a lot darker being their big clue to that fact; it also didn't help that the power was out practically everywhere in New York. 

Ben was there now, sitting on the couch in between May and Peter, allowing his wife to stich up the underplayed cut on his fore-arm. Peter was hugging his other arm in attempt to comfort his Uncle; and if he was getting comfort out of it too no one had to know.

"You're lucky I was able to stitch this up. If I had to take you to the hospital after finding out you lied about how small your injury was, you would need more than these little stitches." May says, clipping the last stitch up before putting everything back into the first aid kit.

Ben just gave a sly smile, pulling his wife close to him. As they gazed into each other's eyes, May couldn't help but smile and lean in to kiss Ben on the cheek.

"Then I guess I really _am _lucky to call you my wife then, huh?" Ben asks, leaning in to kiss his wife, only to be interrupted by Peter groaning.

"You two are gross." He whines, making Ben chuckle and look down at him. 

"Aww is Petey feeling left out? Do you want some kisses too?" Ben teases, going and planting kisses all over Peter's cheek, making the small boy let out squeals of laughter. It quickly turned into a tickle fight, so when a knock was heard at the door, all May could was roll her eyes fondly and go to answer it, slightly confused. 

It's been a few hours since the attack, but she still wouldn't expect - or didn't know who to expect - anyone coming to the apartment at that time; And she definitely wasn't expecting the person standing on the other side of the door. 

"Fury." May breathes out, Ben and Peter's heads both snapping up to see Fury standing out in the hall.

"Hey, May. May we come in?" Fury asks, a hint of something in his voice that made everyone nervous.

"Of course." May says, leading Fury and the red-haired girl Peter saw on the news in.

"You should sit down." Fury tells May, Ben instantly furrowing his eyebrows.

"Why am I getting a bad sense of déjà vu right now? Why are you here, Fury; what's wrong?" Ben asks, Peter once again latching onto his Uncle's arm as he glances at the red-head uneasily. Ever since Skip, he was still weary around new people; and although he knew she wouldn't hurt him because she worked for his Uncle Fury, he couldn't help what was now his second nature.

"Where's Uncle Phil?" Peter blurts out, prying his eyes off of the woman just in time to see Fury's face fall.

"That was the man I killed, wasn't it?" Loki asks, teenage Peter feeling second-hand guilt just by hearing how torn Loki's voice sounded. All teenage Peter could do was nod and turn his attention back to the memory, hoping that he could get it over with as quickly as possible. 

"Peter, this is Agent Natasha Romanoff. Why don't you go show her some of the computers you built while I talk to your Aunt and Uncle?" Fury asks, clearly trying anything to get Peter out of the room. Peter was going to argue at first, but he caught a glimpse of Uncle Ben's look that was definitely telling him not to argue. 

Peter just sighed and reluctantly got up off the couch, signaling for Natasha to follow him into his room; teenage Peter and Loki also reluctantly following. 

"So... _Uncle _Fury, huh?" Natasha asks once they enter the small boy's bedroom. Peter just gave a shrug before plopping down onto his bed.

"He hasn't mentioned us has he?" Peter asks, sighing when he saw Natasha shake her head no. "You have my mom's old job; the guy with the bow that I saw on the news has my Dad's. They worked for Uncle Fury and with Uncle Phil. Apparently they were all really close so I guess we're family." Peter explains, Nat gently sitting down next to him. 

"Why do we have their jobs? Where are they now?" Nat asks, knowing she was going to regret it. She knew that the Agents that work for SHIELD don't just leave SHIELD unless they retire, or unless they... "retire". 

"Mission gone wrong. Their plane was hijacked and they crashed. At least, that's what I've been told." Peter shrugs, not really wanting to talk much more about it. Instead, he wanted answers from the one thing that seemed to be hidden from him. 

"Uncle Phil is gone, isn’t he?” Peter whispers, not even daring to look up from his hands. Nat just looked at the small boy, unsure really of what to do.

This was why she actively avoided children.

”What makes you say that?” She asks, not really knowing what else she _could_ ask or say right now.

“Because Uncle Fury said the exact same thing to my Aunt when he told us my parents died. And you’re here instead of Uncle Phil. If this was just a typical check-in he would be here also.” Peter explains, shrugging once again at the end to try and hide the fact that tears were now welling up in his eyes.

”You’re really smart for an eleven-year-old.” Natasha comments, the fact that she still hasn’t answered the question making the first couple of tears stream down Peter’s face.

“My Uncle says I have both of my parents IQ’s combined.” Peter says, sniffling and quickly wiping his tears away. ”Did he at least die a hero?”

”He tried to be." Nat confirms, Peter giving a small nod in return. 

"Then all we can do is celebrate him. Obviously we can be sad and not happy about his death, but we have to at least acknowledge that he sacrificed himself for others." Peter whispers, Nat only being able to look at him in shock for a bit.

"You seriously are a smart kid." Nat repeats, Peter looking up at her with a tearful smile.

"So I've been told." 

The memory ended there, leaving Loki and teenage Peter standing there in silence. Peter really didn't know what to say. This memory wasn't terrible, it was just another unpleasant moment in his life. This whole thing - this whole reminder - had to be harder on Loki than anyone else; even if Peter and everyone else in his memory were the one's that were affected. 

"Loki..." Peter starts, trailing off once he realized he couldn't get his brain to come up with words to actually say.

"Child, I can not express enough about how truly sorry I am-" Loki begins to apologize, Peter being quick to stop him.

"Loki, you don't need to apologize. Thor's explained to us that you were being controlled. None of this was your fault, it was whoever was controlling you and forcing you to do this." Peter reassures Loki, wanting anything to just continue on.

"Let's just go to the next memory. You don't even have to worry about giving me a good memory, let's just keep going to the next one the demon person is going to make me see." Peter tells the god. Loki just nodded, not even bothering to look the teen in the eyes as he makes his way into the living room; Peter tailing him. 

When they got into the living room, the scene was already changed, making Peter take a deep breath in and prepare himself for whatever was next. 

_It's only going to get way worse from here._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I actually hate how this chapter turned out and I'm really sorry for the big disappointment. I have been in dead-week for the past month. If you don't know what dead-week is, it's the weird period for college students at the end of their semester where they're preparing for finals and everything is all of a sudden due. I have been so busy with my college work, I just couldn't get over my mind block to do this. The holidays this week also didn't help. I understand this chapter is awful, but now that I'm back in the game, the rest will be better. I promise.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki learns about how sometimes Midgardian schooling will take the children on trips to educational places, and how, sometimes, those trips can be very very dangerous.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, wow, wow, I am so so sorry this is as late as it is!! I just got so busy with a new college semester starting up and I had major writers block with this chapter... plus I have doctors appointments three times a week and honor society meetings... I know these aren't valid excuses, and I really am sorry and I promise that I'll be more consistence from now on. Also, I made a Tumblr!! I'll be posting things related to the stories updates, and you can send me prompts on there for any type of Marvel fic you want written!! You can find me at Skeeter_110!!

When Peter and Loki got into the living room, the scene was already changed from late at night to fairly early in the morning. Memory Peter looked about the same age as present Peter, which meant they were getting into the memories he hated the most; all unfortunately are back to back. Thankfully, there was one thing that still stood out and separated this memory from the rest. Memory Peter was still wearing glasses.

"Do you have an idea of what this memory could be? Loki asks, Peter nodding. Once again, this memory wasn't the worst of the bunch, but it still was up there as being one of the scariest. Maybe scary is an understatement considering he almost died.

Even scary would be an understatement. The whole ordeal was terrifying, traumatic, and painful, although Peter couldn't remember much of it. But, apparently it didn't matter if Peter could remember more than bits and pieces, because it still happened and it was still there in his subconscious, and it still was going to be used to traumatize him. 

"Yeah, I think it's when I got my powers." Peter tells the god, the answer seemingly correct considering memory Peter snapped to life, tripping over his feet as he hurriedly attempts to put his shoe on. 

"Peter, slow down!" May chides from in the kitchen, the boy on the floor only shaking his head as he quickly tied his shoes.

"May, I don't have time to slow down! Ned and I were hoping to get to school early so we can discuss our itinerary for what we want to see when we get free-time to ourselves. We wanted to do that before we got on the bus and Ned's already at the school waiting for me!" Peter rambles, scrambling to the kitchen where he started shoving a bunch of books and papers into his bag; shoving a piece of toast in his mouth while he was at it.

"Well, you can't get to the school early if you kill yourself from running around and tripping over your own feet." May continues to scold, holding out a sacked lunch and a signed permission slip for him to take. 

"Wait, so how exactly did you get your powers, child? I wasn't even aware you had any or that this would even be considered a bad thing." Loki interrupts, Peter awkwardly scratching his neck. 

"It's really hard to explain, you'll just have to see it to believe it." Peter says, Loki nodding as they both turned their attention back onto the memory.

"Thanks, May. I'll see you later tonight!" Peter says, quickly skipping to the front door, only to be stopped just as fast.

"Ah, ah, ah, get back here, young man!" May shouts, effectively getting her nephew to walk back into the kitchen. One he was reluctantly standing in front of his mother-figure, she held out a small blue inhaler, making the teen groan.

"May." Peter whines, drawing out the 'A' way longer than needed.

"No, no complaining. You were sick last week and your asthma has been acting up. The last thing we need is for either me or Ben to be called out of work because you were being 'Mister stubborn' and refused to carry your inhaler just in case." May scolds, gently grabbing Peter by his shoulders and turning him around so she could open up the front pouch on Peter's backpack and put the inhaler in there. 

"Can I go now, worry wart?" Peter asks, laughing when he got a playful smack from his Aunt. 

"Yes, now go have fun on your nerd field trip." May says, kissing Peter on the cheek before actually letting him leave the apartment. 

Present Peter and Loki both followed the teen as he practically jumped down the stairs, the scene changing instantly as they left the apartment building. 

Now, they were in a completely different building, walking along with a giant group of children. Once Peter realized what building they were now in, he couldn't hold back the full body shiver that came over him. Loki looked down at him, giving a questioning look.

"This is Oscorp. The company that gives me my powers accidentally." Peter explains, not really clearing up Loki's confusion; but he didn't ask anything further, figuring he would find out soon.

"Could you imagine getting an actual internship here?" Ned asks. Peter just scoffed, trying to ignore how the tightness in his lungs got worse as he did so. With all of the walking from

"Ned, I hate to break it to you, but I have my eyes on one company and one company only." Peter says slightly breathless.

"Stark Industry." Both boys say making them both burst out laughing as Peter lightly shoves Ned. Ned playfully shoved Peter back, accidentally shoving him into a group of scientists walking past. 

Peter quickly tried to shoved past all the, now angry and confused, professionals, apologizing profusely as he tried to get back to his group. When he saw how far behind he got, he began to run to try and catch up. Unfortunately, his already wheezing lungs had other plans. 

The familiar tightness in his chest soon began to spread, making it extremely hard for him to take a breath in. Automatically knowing what was happening, Peter made sure that none of his teachers and classmates were watching before running into the first room he could find. 

Because an inhaler contains medication, a student isn't actually allowed to keep them on their person, they have to either give it to the nurse or teacher; which is a terrible system for when a student is having an asthma attack and needs their inhaler then and there. The last thing Peter needed was to get in trouble and bring unwanted attention to himself while simultaneously having an asthma attack.

The wheezing soon began, Peter unable to take a breath in now. Loki just turned to current Peter, confused on what exactly was happening; why this child was now struggling hard to breath. Was this a result of his powers, was this the moment he got them? Loki didn’t even know this child had powers, or even what they were.

"Child, what’s happening? Is this you receiving your powers?” Loki asks, getting a small sigh out of the teen.   
  


“Unfortunately, no. This is just me having an asthma attack because my lungs were really bad. I’m getting my powers soon, though.” Peter responds, the answer being good enough for both of them as they turned their attention back onto the memory.

Memory Peter soon got his breathing under control, taking slow and exaggerated breaths as he slides his inhaler back into his pocket. He closed his eyes and leaned back on the wall behind him, slowly regrouping himself.

That was, until he felt something bite the back of his neck.

Peter hissed in pain as he slapped the back of his neck, pulling his hand back to see a dead red and blue spider laying there. That was when he finally turned around and noticed the room he was actually in.

The wall he was leaning against wasn’t a wall at all and instead a glass covering for hundred of cages filled with spiders.

Gasping in horror, Peter quickly ran to the door, getting out of the room and fast as possible; which wasn’t as fast as he would like considering his lungs still felt tight.

Peter saw his group down the hall and quickly ran to rejoin them, Ned giving him a really confused look when he saw Peter was back.

”Dude! Where did you go? You know you’re not supposed to leave the group!” Ned whisper yells, Peter a bit distracted by the burning bite that was on his neck.

”I had an asthma attack and didn’t want to draw attention.” Peter mumbles, rubbing his fingers against the growing lump on his neck.

”Are you okay? See, maybe May was right, maybe you should have stayed home since you haven’t really fully recovered from being sick.” Ned worryingly says as their group makes their way into the cafeteria for a late lunch.

”I’m fine, Ned. I’ll just rest a lot when I get home and before you know it I’ll be good as new.” Peter reassures, Ned giving him and uneasy look before reluctantly agreeing and sitting down at a table to eat.

Peter couldn’t help but think that it was a good thing they were leaving after they ate because as time grew on he was starting to feel worse.   
  


By the time they got on the bus to go home, Peter was practically dragging himself. He was pretty sure he had a fever once again, and his whole body was freezing; except of course the back of his neck where the limp continued to grow.   
  


As Peter all but threw himself into the bus seat, Ned was giving him a concerned look, knowing for sure that there was something wrong with his friend.

”Pete, are you okay?” He hesitantly asks, already knowing the answer to that. He could practically _see_ the answer to that. Peter was extremely pale and looked like he was sweating all over despite shivering.

”I think you and May were right. I don’t think I let myself rest long enough after being sick.” Peter tells him, pressing his face against the cool glass and watching as the bus begins to pull away from the building.

”Do you want my mom to drive you home? I don’t think you’re going to be able to go on the subway.” Ned says, Peter gratefully nodding his head.

The scene quickly changed to Peter stumbling up the stairs of his apartment building, cursing the landlord for not getting the elevator fixed. He struggles to get his keys out of his pocket, and actually unlocking his front door was an even bigger hassle.

When Peter finally got into the apartment, nausea rolled over him, barely giving him enough time to shut the front door before he dropped his bag and all but sprinted to the bathroom.

He quickly dropped to his knees in front of the toilet, vomiting everything he had in his stomach; which wasn’t a lot considering he picked at his food at lunch earlier.   
  
Peter allowed himself to dry heave for a little while, making sure that nothing was going to come up if he stood. He slowly made his way over to the sink, grabbing the tumbler by the faucet and filling it with water to try and help soothe the cramping in his stomach and the burning in his throat.   
  


As Peter lifts his head from spitting out the water he used to wash out his mouth, he couldn't help but look at himself in the mirror. He slowly set the tumbler down, raising a shaking hand to the collar of his shirt. He turned slightly, pulling down the collar so he can try and see the lump that was still pulsating. 

He couldn't help the terrified gasp he let out when he saw how big the bite had grown. Now, it was gigantic, all red and angry, and the cool air pressing against it made Peter hiss in pain. 

His stomach rolled again, making him quickly turn around and stick his head back into the toilet, vomiting what very little he still had left in his stomach. When he was done, all he could do was groan before all but dragging himself to his room. 

He quickly sent a message to May, asking if she could bring some medication when she came home from work, before crawling into bed. The most he could do before falling asleep was hope and pray he was sick because he never recovered from his cold and not from the spider being poisonous.

He must have managed to fall asleep, because the next time he opened his eyes, his aunt was standing over top of him, concern written all over her face.

"Here, baby, open your mouth for a second; I want to take your temperature." May says, holding out a thermometer and sticking it in his mouth once he complied and opened it.

As the thermometer beeped, Peter peeled his eyes open in time to see May's face turn from concerned to down right panic-stricken. But, before he could dwell on it too much, bile quickly rose up his throat, making him practically fall out of bed to run to the bathroom. 

"Oh, baby." May cooed, watching as her nephew fled his room. She looked down once again at the temperature on the thermometer, wondering slightly if it was broken because the temperature could not be correct. If it was, she needed to take Peter to the hospital right away. The debate was settled when she heard a blood-curdling scream come from the bathroom before Peter began screaming for May. 

May quickly ran to the bathroom, throwing open the door to see Peter sitting in front of the toilet, sobbing and pointing to whatever he threw up inside. He was trying to say something, but because he was sobbing so hard May couldn't understand a word he was saying. It wasn't until she looked in the toilet that she understood, her heart jumping to her throat as she did.

Blood. 

There was bile mixed with a bunch of blood in the toilet. 

That was enough to make May's mind up. Peter needed to go to the hospital now.

"It's okay, it's going to be okay, baby. Come on, we're going to go get you fixed up. Let's go, baby." May says, gently taking Peter's hands to pull him up. 

As soon as she got him to his feet, he dropped, giving May barely enough time to catch him and stop him from hitting his head against the counter. Peter’s body quickly tensed up as his eyes rolled back, his whole body shaking with the seizure.

May just held Peter’s head, making sure he didn’t bang his head repeatedly against the tile floor, doing everything she can to keep her tears at bay as a low grunting noise came out of Peter.

Peter started to relax in May’s hold after a minute, deeming it safe for May to quickly call an ambulance. May was just thankful for her medical training at that moment, since she was able to relay everything that was happening in technical terms so the EMT's could be ready to do whatever they have to do right away.

Peter let out a whimper, making May cradle him closer to her chest, rocking them back and forth a bit. The heat coming off of Peter's skin was enough to burn May, reminding her of the tempurature she saw on the thermometer. 

104\. 104 degrees. 

His temperature was so high and he's throwing up blood, _and _he had a seizure. 

"M-May." Peter whines, May being quick to shush him, running her fingers through his sweat matted hair and trying not to cringe at how much Peter was burning up.

"Hey, baby, it's okay. We have some doctors coming and they're going to fix you right up I promise." May reassures, unsure if she was trying to calm Peter or herself down with her words.

"Don' feel good." Peter mumbles, all but throwing his glasses off of his face so he could burry it in the crook of Mays neck comfortably.

"I know, baby, I know. We're going to make you feel all better soon, okay. For now, I need you to stay awake for me, okay? At least until the doctors come." May says, fearing what could happen if her nephew fell asleep right now.

"Tired." Peter whines, the sound of the EMT's making their way into the apartment being the only reassuring thing in that moment. 

Before anyone knew it, there were a bunch of people pulling Peter away, putting him on a stretcher while simultaneously putting a mask on his face and what few IV's they could already start in his arm. 

The scene changed as everyone left the room, now, Loki and present Peter were staring at May sitting in a waiting room, her face covered in dried tears as she nervously works at her nails. 

"Child, I am severely confused on what is happening right now." Loki interrupts, not being able to keep to himself and just let the memory play out.

"So, you know that spider that bit me?" Peter asks, waiting for Loki to confirm. "Well, it was radioactive. Oscorp, the company I was touring with my class, were working on cross-gene modifications. Basically my genes are being merged with a spider's genes. That's how I got my powers." Peter explains, Loki still confused by the whole thing, but not really wanting to demand more answers.

"May!" Ben almost shouts, making his wife look up. She instantly wrapped her arms around his neck, her shoulders shaking with smothered sobs. "What happened? Everything was fine this morning, wasn't it?" Ben asks, sitting down on the chair next to May as she pulls away. 

"I-I don't know. He was perfectly fine this morning, he didn't even have a runny nose! Then he texted me saying that he was feeling sick, so I just assumed that we allowed him go to school too early. But, then, I got home and he was throwing up blood, and he had a seizure, and his temperature was so high, Ben, it was _so high._" May rambles, Ben pulling her tight to his side in attempt to comfort them both.

"It's going to be okay, he's getting help now." Ben tries to reassure, knowing his words were falling on deaf ears and will continue to until they actually see Peter okay themselves. 

"Peter Parker?" A doctor calls out, making May and Ben all but run towards him.

"Daniel. What's wrong with my boy?" May asks, hoping that her co-worker would just get straight to the point and tell them what was wrong.

"May, you know as well as I do that we can't sugar-coat anything that we tell the family." The doctor starts off, waiting for May to nod, or at least give him some sort of sign that she understood. "I will try to be as gentle as I can, but I won't lie, it's not looking good." The doctors continues, May tightening the hold she had on Ben's arm.

"Peter has suffered from severe radiation poisioning. We tried doing everything we can to treat it, but it was too extreme. His temperature managed to get up to 112 degrees. We've managed to bring it down some, but with a temperature that high, if Peter survives, he'll have brain-damage." The doctor explains, all of it going in one ear and out the other for Ben; except for one part.

"_If _ he survives? What do you mean _if_?" Ben asks, May and Daniel sharing wary expressions.

"May... you know we can't-"

"Yes, I know you can't sugar-coat it, just... please. What are the chances of Peter leaving here with us?" May cuts off, wishing the answer would stop being stalled.

"There's a five percent chance." Daniel says, startling a gasp out of May. All the Parkers could do at that moment was stand there stunned and trying to process the fact that they were never going to see their little boy be a normal kid again.

They'll never see the sparkle he gets in his eye when he talks about science that neither adult understands. They'll never wake up in the middle of the night to the smoke alarms going off because Peter had a late-night invention idea and it went wrong. They'll never get to go to one of his decathlon or robotics meets ever again.

They were never going to get to go home and relax on the couch with the little boy they've been raising as their own for eleven years. 

"I can take you two to see him. I'm aware that you're all he has and it would be best to try and say good-bye now." Daniel says, signaling for the married couple to follow him. The two Parker's quickly ran into the room their nephew was in, only to stop just as fast.

May had an idea of what Peter was going to look like; she did this for a living. She knew that he was going to be covered in tubes and wires, and that he wasn't going to look like his normal self. She worked with people that looked like this everyday, she saw this exact thing everyday; she was trained to deal and be professional around this type of thing _everyday_.

What she was not trained for, was how to deal with it when it was her own nephew; her own _son._

Every instinct May had was fighting against her. She was trying to be strong, and trying to have a poker face like she was taught, but how could she when her son was connected to life support? How could she when her son was connected to breathing tubes because he couldn't do it on his own? How could she when her son's temperature was higher than anyone's should ever be and how could she when her son was clearly dying in front of her eyes.

Her and Ben slowly made their way into the room, neither one's eyes leaving the small teen laying there in the bed. They both fell heavily into the chairs that were next to the bed, both moving robotically; like they weren't in control of their own bodies. 

Neither Parker said anything because what do you say in this situation? What do you and your husband talk about when your child is dying? 

"W-Why is he connected to all of that?" Ben chokes out, startling May back into existence.

"It's just helping his heart beat, helping him breathe. It's keeping him alive until he can do it on his own." May answers, Ben letting out a sharp breath before shaking his head.

He knew that wasn't going to happen. He may not be as smart as May when it came to medical stuff - hell he's surprised he's even smart enough to be a police officer - but he was at least smart enough to understand what the doctor was telling them. Peter was never going to be able to do any of that stuff on his own ever again. He hated that May, a medical nurse, was denying that instead of accepting it. It was just going to hurt her even more when the inevitable happened.

Still, he didn't say anything though, because him and his wife were soon going to be in a world of hurt and heaven forbid if he made that worse for her now.

"I'm going to make some calls. Figure out how this happened." Ben murmurs, getting up and walking out into the hall.

When Ben comes back in, it's now dark, and May was still in the same spot she was before, but now she was holding tightly onto Peter's hand; as if that would keep his here and alive. 

"So, I talked to Petey's teacher and he said that they were no where even close to where radiation was, and that all of the other students were okay, so he couldn't have been exposed to radiation at that field trip he went on." Ben says, seeming even more tired and stressed than he was when he went to go make the phone call. 

"That doesn't make any sense though. How could he have been exposed to radioactivity anywhere else? You don't think our apartment is what caused it, do you?" May asks, grabbing onto her husband's hand with her free one. 

"No, you said he texted you after he got home saying he was feeling sick." Ben reminds, making both of them slump as they try to figure out what could have caused this to happen. 

Their thoughts were soon broken by the machines Peter was connected to beeping. May, instantly knowing that couldn't be anything good at all, hauled Ben up as best as she could. They quickly moved away from the bed, just in time for doctors and nurses to run into the room shouting a bunch of unintelligible words.

"May, we need you and your husband to step out for a minute." Daniel says when he walks in, all but dragging May and Ben away from where Peter is and out to the hall. 

All hope May had was gone as soon as the door shut. She tried, she tried to continue to hold onto what little faith was left, but she knew this was the end. She's seen this situation many times before and never once has she seen a patient come out alive. She knew that they officially lost their boy. 

So when they were finally allowed back in and saw the doctor standing above Peter's bed with a grim look on his face, she instantly knew what was going to be said and quickly zoned out from the conversation. 

All she could do was stare at the teen boy - _her boy - _laying completely limp in the bed, tubes still sticking out him. She tried imagining him without all of the tubing, tried to imagine him smiling at her, telling her that he was fine and ready to go home, tried to imagine him in any other way except for this.

"-we think it would be best to take him off life support." The doctors words finally broke through, brining May back to the gut-wrenching present.

"But his heart is still beating! Listen to it! He still has a heartbeat! How are we supposed to just give up on him when he still is breathing and his heart is still beating?" Ben all but shouts at the doctor, the barrier he had in place to hold together his emotions quickly breaking as tears flowed freely down his face now.

"Mister Parker, the only reason Peter is breathing and has a heart beat right now is because the life support is doing it for him." The doctor explains, May grabbing ben's forearm to stop him from arguing anymore. "I'll leave and give you two some time to think about what you want to do." The doctor says before giving an awkward nod and leaving. 

May opened her mouth to try and explain that the best thing they could do was let Peter go, but before she could even get the words out, Ben held up his hand before he started speaking himself.

"I know what you're going to say, but I don't think I can. He's the last bit of Richie and Mary I have. Losing him feels like I'm losing my little brother all over again; but this time, it's worse. This time it's my boy instead of my brother. It's the baby we raised together." Ben says, getting choked up once again. 

May just sighed, trying to swallow the golf ball sized lump in her throat as she wrapped her arms around her husband, both trying to comfort each other while simultaneously gaining comfort. 

After a while, May pulled away, rubbing her face before walking back over to where Peter laid. She reached down to take his hand, sniffing as she tried to convert the feeling of his hand in hers to memory one last time.

"Ben." May says, holding out her free hand for her husband to take. He took it, closing his eyes once he saw that May was going to begin praying. 

"Bellissimo, bellissimo, angelo, vieni a stare vicino a mio nipote, rendilo buono come te, e poi portal da Gesù." May mumbles. It was a prayer that she's known since she was little, a prayer to their guardian angel to watch over them, to make them as holy and worthy as them, and to take them up to Jesus one day.

She prayed it with her siblings when their father left, she prayed it when her mother died, she prayed it the night they found out Mary and Richard died, and now... well now she was praying it in hopes that her son would make it safely to heaven. 

Ben dropped May's hand, walking towards Peter to brush his hair off of his forehead and plant a kiss there. It took everything in him to not shake as he stood back up, tears once again falling freely.

"Petey... my boy. My son. I love you more than words can even express. You may be my little brother's boy, but I have always loved you as my own; always saw you as my own. And if-" Ben stops, not being able to control the sob that crawled it way out. "-if it's really your time to go, just know that we will always love and miss you, but we don't want you to suffer any longer so we'll understand." Ben manages to get out before sobs began to wrack throughout his chest. 

"I love you baby. I love you so, so much." May whispers, peppering kisses all over Peter's forehead. 

Loki looked over at Present Peter, watching silent tears fall down his face.

"Child." Loki says, getting a head shake in return at first.

"I don't remember this at all. I didn't even know this happened." Peter mumbles, not being able to tear his eye away from where his Aunt and Uncle were sobbing over his body.

"It's in your subconscious, though, therefore it can still be used against you." Loki explains, both of them watching as May and Ben regretfully tell the doctor that they were going to take him off life support. 

It was beyond strange to see yourself living out memories. It's like when you're awake at three in the morning and you remember something cringy you did in middle school. What's even worse, though, is seeing yourself living out something you don't even remember, but knew happened, and seeing how the people around you react to it. 

Seeing May and Ben sob as he flatlines hurt more than words could compare. He knew he worried them, it was hard not to notice their red-rimmed eyes when he woke up, but they never went into detail about what happened. He didn't know he actually flatlined. 

The continuous deep tone was piercing, both to his ears and his heart, and May and Ben's cries did nothing to help. 

The doctor stepped back to give May and Ben some room, going to turn off the rest of the machines before the continuous flatline noise began beeping. The doctor quickly looked at the EKG machine, eyebrows furrowing in confusion when it showed that Peter now had a heart beat.

Before the doctor could even question what was going on, Peter gasped, only to begin choking on the breaking tube that was down his throat.

"You two need to leave, now!" The doctor shouts, hitting a call button to get more nurses and doctors in before quickly snapping into action. 

May and Ben just stood frozen, completely baffled at what was happening, until they started to be pulled away into the hall by Daniel. 

"What's happening?" May asks. Never, in all of her years of working as a nurse, has she seen someone come back to life after being taken off of life support; after flatlining like that. 

"We're... We're not sure. We'll come out and tell you everything once we know what's happening." Daniel tells them before going back into the room to help. 

No one really knew how long May and Ben had to sit out in the hallway, to them it felt like weeks, and to Loki and current Peter, Daniel was back out there in the blink of an eye; literally. 

"How is he? What was going on?" Ben asks almost as soon as the doctor came out.

"He's stable. I'm not sure what happened exactly, but we were able to take him off of life support. He's able to breathe on his own, and his heart is beating on it's own. His fever has gone down to 99 degrees and he's awake and seems to be aware of his surroundings." Daniel explains, his voice sounding as if he wasn't able to believe what he was saying.

May barely believed what he was saying. She was just saying goodbye to her baby - he was brain dead - and now all of a sudden he's alive and not only that but he's aware of what's happening around him? Things like that don't happen.

"I know I'm not really allowed to say this, but in this case, I think it deserves to be said. This was a true miracle, May." Daniel whispers, speaking as if it was an illegal thing to say. Which, considering their profession, it wasn't too far from the truth. 

"Can we go-" May begins to ask, raw emotion choking her up and stopping her from finishing the sentence. instead she just pointed at the door, Daniel thankfully getting the point.

"Yes, of course." He says, stepping out of the way and letting the couple walk past him towards the room. 

Both of them quickly wiped away any evidence of tears from their face before walking into the room to see their boy alive and well.

The memory ended when May and Ben disappeared through the door, current Peter just standing and staring at their retreating forms. He really didn't know what to think about this entire situation. He didn't think he died.

"I honestly had no idea any of this happened." Peter murmurs, commenting more to himself. 

"You've been through a lot, Child." Loki also comments.

"Yeah, and there's only more to come." Peter adds, walking through the door to the hospital room, knowing that Loki was going to change the scene for him as they go. Peter couldn't even bring himself to comment as they continued, his body feeling especially tired and numb. At this point, Peter was just mindlessly watching as these traumatic memories play in front of him. 

The room around them quickly shift from May hovering over Peter in the hospital bed, to May hovering over him in his own bed at the apartment. 

"Now, are you sure you're going to be okay?" May asks, only getting an eye roll in return as she continues to fuss with the blanket.

"Yes, May, I will be fine. I'm feeling a lot better, the hospital released me two days ago, and I haven't had so much as a cough. Trust me when I say I will be okay by myself, you and Ben need to go back to work." Memory Peter reassures once again. They've been having this conversation since last night. 

"I know, I know." May says, lifting her hands up and beginning to stand, giving Peter the false idea that she was going to back off now. "But - quit groaning - _But _if anything happens, and I mean _anything_, you will call me right away." May says, Peter reluclantly agreeing. It wasn't until May began to fix the blanket that was covering him once again that Peter protested.

"May, I love you-"

"I love you too, baby."

"-but you're hovering now." Peter says, having to bite his tongue to not laugh at the glare May was now giving him. "May, I promise, the most I'm going to do today is the homework Ned gave me. I swear I will be okay." Peter reassures, May reluctantly backing off. 

"Okay, but if you need something-"

"I will call you." Peter cuts off, getting an unsure look in return. "I swear."

"Alright. Well, I love you, baby, and Ben will be home at six. I, unfortunately have a double shift so I won't be home until late." May says, leaning down once more to kiss Peter on his forehead before exchanging goodbyes. 

Once Peter heard the front door shut close, he finally released a tense breath, quickly pulling off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. For the past two days - since Peter woke up in the hospital - for whatever reason it was hard for him to see out of his glasses and his vision was as sharp as could be without them. 

He didn't want to say anything, not wanting to worry May and Ben more than they already are, so he's had to bear with trying to look through the blur and the headaches that were caused from it. 

Peter just let out another sigh before opening his eyes back up and all but rolling out of bed. He picked up his backpack and threw it towards his bed, fully expecting it to just land on his pillow. 

It was to his surprise when, instead, his backpack flew right over his bed and landed on the other side of the room. He quickly shook it off, not focusing too much on it as he rounded his bed and picking his bag back up and gently setting it on his bed. 

He walked over to his desk, opening up the drawer and grabbing a pen out of it. He turned around after and went to go back over to his bed, when something was pulling him back towards the desk. He turned around, assuming he just shut his sleeve in the drawer and that was what was stuck, not expecting to see his hand being the one stuck around the handle. 

He tried pulling his hand off of the handle, unsure of what was causing it to stick. He couldn't remember spilling super glue on it, and even if he did it would have been dried by now. He grabbed his wrist and yanked, only to be met back with resistance. Sighing, he decided the best thing to do was to rip his hand off the handle, which turned out to be a bad idea. 

The drawer flew out, his hand unsticking from it now, causing it to shoot across the room and hit the wall. Hard. 

Peter just stood there gaping for a bit, staring at everything that was now scattered all over his room before dragging his eyes up to the hole that was now in the wall. 

"Shit." Peter breathes out, quickly walking over and running his fingers over the hole. If he's lucky, he'll be able to cover the hole up with a poster, so he wasn't worried about that. What he _was _worried about was the fact that not only was his drawer stuck to him, but he apparently threw it with enough strength to create a hole in the wall; despite the fact that he barely even tossed it. 

Peter just nervously ran his fingers through his hair, looking down at the pen that was still in his hand. Rolling his eyes at the fact that he was no longer motivated to do the homework he missed due to the mess he now had to clean up, he went to throw the pen at his backpack, only for it to not release from his hand. 

Peter just looked down at the pen in his hand in shock and annoyance before attempting to pull it off of his hand. With not much luck, Peter just began to flail his hand, not even caring about the fact that it wasn't doing anything other than make his wrist hurt. 

"Why are things sticking to me?!" The teen in the memory shouts, finally being able to pry the pen off of his hand. 

He quickly chucked it across his room before grabbing his laptop off of his desk and plopping down on his bed. Peter pulled his backpack onto his lap, going to open it up so he could grab the laptop charger that he had in there, but he must have used too much force because when he tugged on his zipper, his bag ripped completely in half. 

Peter's stunned silence quickly turned into anger, though, when he realized that the ripped fabric was now stuck to his hands. After a fit of flailing his hands around and pulling the fabric off, he threw it to the ground and huffed.

"What the hell is happening?!" Peter shouts, more than annoyed whatever was happening to him. 

Peter slowly put his head in his hands, trying to calm down and think of reasons this could be happening, when something dawned upon him. 

He quickly opened up his laptop, being careful not to break it in half, and quickly began to search up Oscorp. He couldn't find much, and it was hard to find, but when he did find what he was looking for, his heart sunk to his feet. 

"Holy shit." Peter breathlessly whispers, reading the information over and over again. "Oscorp was working on cross-gene mutations. With spiders. Holy _shit__!"_ Peter shouts this time, quickly hopping off his bed so he could pace around. 

"Child, we really need to work on your definition of good." Loki comments as they watch the memory of Peter practically skipping around his room with anxiety. 

"What? This is a good memory!" Present Peter defends, getting an unbelieving look in return. 

"Look at you. You look like you're about to explode with nervous energy." Loki comments, Peter just shrugging in response.

"Well, it gets better. This is when I realize I had powers. It was shocking and terrifying at first, but it really does get better." Peter reassures, Loki just sighing and choosing to believe him.

"Okay, okay, okay. Calm down, Peter, you're okay." Memory Peter murmurs, running his fingers through his hair in attempt to calm himself. "Okay, so there's a possibility that the spider that bit you was venomous, and that the venom in the spider was somehow altered with this cross-gene mutation project. So there's a possibility that you may or may not be part spider. _Shit!" _

They watched as memory Peter paces around for a few more seconds, before a thought clearly crossed his mind and made him stop. He looked down at his hands, before looking around his room and staring at a blank wall. 

Peter slowly walked over to the wall, taking a deep breathe in before pressing his hands against it. He gave a test tug on them, smiling slightly when they wouldn't move off of the wall. Slowly, but surely, Peter began to put the balls of his feet on the wall, a surprised chuckle leaving his lips when he realized that he was fully sticking to the wall now. 

He gently pried his hand away from the wall and moved it upwards, steadily climbing up the wall. 

Peter couldn't stop the, somewhat manic, laughs from spilling out his throat as he realized that he was now hanging on the ceiling by his fingers and toes. 

"Holy shit I'm actually part spider!" Peter shouts, accidentally releasing the grip he had on the ceiling and falling to the ground. But, before he could hit the ground, his body instinctually flipped, making him land on his feet. Before he could think too much on that, he quickly glanced at the separate desk he had filled with scrap parts from whatever project he just got finished doing. 

Peter swiftly picked up a thick piece of metal, taking a deep breath in as he turns it around in his hands. As if it was nothing more than a mere piece of paper, Peter was able to rip it in half. 

Peter couldn't stop himself from giggling and jumping excitedly in place. 

"I'm strong! Holy shit, I have powers!" Peter exclaims, hopping around in a circle like an excited little puppy. He stopped for a bit, standing in deep thought before running towards his bedroom window and climbing up the fire escape.

"Oh dear, Child, what are you about to do?" Loki asks as him and present Peter follows the teen. 

"About to jump across buildings." Peter answers simply, Loki stopping for a second to give a baffled look, turning and continuing up the ladder. 

"Please have webs, please have webs, please have webs." Memory Peter whispers to himself before flicking his wrist. When nothing happen, he continued to flick it, but in different ways. Eventually, when nothing continued to happen, Peter just sighed dejectedly.

"Well that sucks. I can stick to things, but not have webs." Peter slightly whines, his pout quickly being replaced with a smirk before he jumped into a backflip; landing it as if he did it a million types before. 

Peter kept doing a few back flips, his jumps getting progressively higher with each one. With the last one measuring in about three feet, Peter felt confident enough to swiftly runn off of the roof of his apartment and onto the neighboring building. 

He kept running and jumping across buildings, only stopping when the phone in his pocket began to ring. Peter pulled it out, seeing that it was his aunt calling.   
  


Quicker than anything he’s ever done, Peter answered the phone, taking a deep breath in before greeting his Aunt.

”Hey, Aunt May!” 

”Hey, baby! You sound chipper.” May comments, Peter chuckling a bit at how her voice sounded happily shocked.

”Yeah, homework is going well, so.” Peter lies, bitting a bit too hard into his lip. He was never good, and never liked, lying to his guardians.

”Well that’s good. I was just calling to check in, make sure you’re okay.” May explains.

”I’m great, May.”

”Because if not, Ben says him and his partner are two blocks down. He can quickly come home if needed.” May continues.

”No, May, that’s not needed. Uncle Ben can stay where he is. I’ve just been sitting in my room-“ 

“Why does it sound like there’s wind? Peter Benjamin, I swear if you left the apartment-“ May begins to scold, only making Peter’s heart beat faster once again.

”No, no! I-I’m home! I-I just got... hot. Yeah. I got hot so I turned a small fan on. Nothing big.” Peter lies, hoping that was enough to ease May down.

He was severely wrong.

”You’re hot? Like a fever hot? Because if you have another fever we have to take you to the doctors right away.” May says, the worry seeping doesn’t fat into her voice it was all Peter could hear over the phone.

”No, May, I don’t have a fever.” Peter denies.

”Peter, baby, I love you, but you like to hide when you’re sick. I’m having your Uncle stop by just to make sure.” May tells him, only making the panic in his chest rise.

”May-“ He tries to stop her, only to hear the dial tone in return. “Shit!” 

Peter quickly ran back the other way, practically jumping over two roofs at a time, hoping that he could get back to his apartment before his Uncle.

Once he got to his building, he didn’t even bother to go down the stairs of the fire escape, choosing instead to just jump straight down by his window. 

He quickly threw it open, jumping on his bed, and letting out a small breath of relief when he heard the front door opening once he was settled.

”Petey?”

”I’m in my room, Ben!” Peter shouts in reply, only having to wait a few seconds before his Uncle came through the door.

”Hey, bud, May said that you had a fever.” Ben says, slowly making his way into the teens room, chuckling a bit when said teen rolled his eyes.

”I don’t have a fever, just got a bit hot and turned on a fan. I’m fine.” Peter reassures, dreading what was to come until he saw the soft smile on his Uncle’s face. 

”I believe you, pal. You don’t even look flushed, you look fine. But, you know we have to humor your Aunt sometimes.” Ben says, making Peter let out a snort.

”How about you and I get out of here and go get some lunch. As long as you promise we won’t tell your Aunt May.” Ben offers, a giant smile spreading on Peter’s face.

”That sounds like a great compromise.” Peter answers, Ben pulling him in for a hug as they both laugh. 

The memory ended there, present Peter sighing and staring at him and his Uncle together.

”Are you ready to move on, child?” Loki asks, snapping Peter out of his happy little bubble.

”Can... Can you give me a second?” Peter asks.

“Sure, but not for long. We probably have already spent more time here than we should have. Any longer we put you at an even further risk.” Loki tells him.

Peter just stared at him and his Uncle hugging, trying to burn this exact moment into his mind. 

Tried to burn into his mind the look of pure love that his Uncle was giving him in this moment. 

Tried to burn into his mind everything he was feeling in that moment.

Because he knew in the next, it would be the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's just say I was sobbing while writing this. I've always felt like the way they portrayed Peter getting bit and then mutating was wrong and underwhelming. Clearly he would have been in a lot more pain and it would have been a lot more serious than what they had it be (I mean think about how much pain Bruce Banner, Steve Rogers, Wade Wilson, and anyone else that had their genes mutated went through) so this was my take on it. I hope you liked it because the next chapter is nothing but pain. If you know, you know. (You can probably guess what's next)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki learns about how Peter's third parent dies, and how he officially met his fifth one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yikes. All I can say is get ready for pain. Pain. Pain. PAIN. Also let me explain the ending of this chapter really quick without actually spoiling anything: in my mind Civil War and anything that comes after doesn't actually happen. In my mind Steve and Tony are able to actually talk things out like adults so Civil War never happens, and Infinity War and Endgame hurt too much so those also never happen. Keep that in mind.

They once again found themselves in Peter's apartment, May and Ben in the kitchen and memory Peter no where to be seen. 

Peter didn't even really need to _look_ around to know what this memory was, the previous memory was clue enough, and he already couldn't handle it. He wanted all of this to be over with. He didn't want to relive all of these awful memories after finally learning how to stop dwelling over them and blaming himself and actually live happily. 

"Do you have an idea what this memory could be?" Loki asks, like he always does, snapping Peter out of his inner turmoil. 

"Yeah." Was all Peter could say; _wanted _to say. He wanted to delay the inevitable for as long as he could. 

"Are you going to explain, child?" Loki asks, Peter shaking his head in return. "Child-" 

"Yes, Loki, I know! I know I have to explain to you what this memory is, but I can't!" Peter shouts, stunning Loki into silence for a few seconds.

"I know this memory probably isn't an easy one, but you will get through it." Loki attempts to reassure.

"Yeah, but what if _you_ can't?" Peter asks, turning to face Loki. 

"What?" 

"You heard me. I may be able to get through it, yeah, but what if _you can't_? You're about to see something that's going to change your entire view on me; you're never going to be able to look at me and not see a terrible human being. You know why? Because this is the memory where I got my Uncle killed because I was a selfish little brat." Peter spits out, not quite realizing what he said and accidentally making the memory come to life.

"Hey, Love." Ben greets his wife, making his way further into the kitchen and planting a kiss on her cheek.

"Hey, Honey. How was work?" May asks, stirring something undefinable in a pot on the stove.

"It was alright. Nothing interesting really happened today." Ben answers, looking around the apartment and noticing that they were one person short. "Where's Petey?" 

"He's been in his room since I got home. I think he's still trying to catch up from when he went to the hospital." May tells him, turning around and leaning against the counter. 

"Has he seemed a little... off to you lately?" Ben asks, leaning against the counter across from her so they can be face to face while they talked. 

"No, not really. He seems busier, but that could just be because he missed a week and a half of school from when he was sick." May responds, shrugging it off and turning back to whatever was in the pot. 

"That's not what I meant. He seems more closed off than he usually would be. I mean, he locks his bedroom door now! When has he ever done that?" Ben continues, frowning when he heard May snort.

"Ben, he's a teenager, what do you expect? He was eventually going to go in the phase where it's uncool to hang out with your parents; it's what teenagers do." May says, trying to keep that laughter out of her voice. 

"But not our kid. He was never like that." Ben argues, making May turn around again. 

"Okay, then, it must be because of the hospital. Peter went through a really traumatic experience and he probably just needs a little time to himself to cope with it all." May says, walking up and wrapping her arms around her husbands neck. "But I really do think it's the first thing." She chuckles, planting a kiss on his lips. 

"I hope you're wrong. With how cuddly Petey is, I was hoping we were going to skip the angsty teenager phase." Ben murmurs, almost looking like he was pouting at the mere thought that Peter would rather be by himself or with his friends than his parents; even though Ben went through the same thing when he was a teen. 

May can't hold in her laugh now, quickly kissing the pout off of Ben's face. 

"I have to go to work, but you're welcome to try and drag him out of his room while I'm gone. Preferably when I'm gone. I don't want to be here for world war three, or the clean up." May teases, planting one more kiss on Ben's lips.

"Oh, you think you're hilarious, don't you?" Ben retorts, pinching May in the side and reveling in the laugh he got out of it; even if she did smack him afterwards. 

"I'm leaving now, there's food on the stove for you two. You boys stay out of trouble." May says, throwing her jacket on before patting Ben on the shoulder and leaving the apartment. 

Ben awkwardly stood in the kitchen for a bit before walking over to the stove and throwing whatever black substance was in the pot in the trash. He gently put the pot in the sink and wiped his hands on his pants, staring at Peter's bedroom door. 

Taking a deep breathe in and shaking his head at how silly it was for him to feel nervous about going into his own kid's room, Ben slowly began making his way down the hall. He didn't exactly know what he was going to say, but he was determined to get his boy out of his room and back to spending time with him. 

Once Ben was standing in front of the door, he lightly knocked on it, waiting a bit for a response. When he doesn't hear anything more than a little bit of rustling, he decides to knock again, but a bit harder this time.

"Petey? Hey, Bud, May just went to work and I was thinking you and I can go get something to eat." Ben says through the door, hearing a thump before the teen's voice.

"Sounds good, Ben! I'll be out later!"

He hated to do this, he didn't want to purposely invade the kid's privacy, but it also wasn't his fault that Peter's door was unlocked. Plus, he was worried, can you really blame him? He thought his boy was going to die last week, he needed to make sure he was okay, even now. 

So, he slowly opened up the door, not really thinking anything of it. 

"Hey, Petey-" Ben begins to say, the words getting stuck in his throat when he saw what Peter was doing in his room. 

Ben had to look up because Peter was on the ceiling. 

Both Parker boys stared at each other in shock, unsure of what to do and hoping the other would make the first move. 

It was clear that staying on the ceiling wasn't helping, so Peter quickly dangled by his fingers and hopped down to stand on his floor. Both Parkers continued to stare at each other, but Peter could tell Ben was quickly on his way to freaking out, so he slowly held his hands up as if his Uncle was a wild animal. 

"Ben, I know what-"

"What the hell was that? What were you doing on the ceiling? How did you even get up there?" Ben quickly blurts out, effectively talking over Peter's attempts to calm him. 

"Ben, please try to understand-" 

"Understand? _Understand?_ Understand, _what_? What is there for me to understand? You were on the ceiling!" Ben continues to freak out, making Peter run his fingers through his hair and pace. 

A few moments of silence pass, both Peter and Ben freaking out to themselves while they try to calm down and figure out where to go from there. 

"Ben." Peter whispers, placing his hands on top of his head in effort to keep them from messing with his hair even more. 

"Okay... okay. Sit down. You have some explaining to do." Ben says, successfully unfreezing them both and bringing them both over to sit on the bed. 

There was another long beat of silence, Peter trying to figure out where to start, before he was able to even open his mouth.

"So, you know the trip to Oscorp?" Peter begins, as if Ben would have forgotten the trip that occurred last week; especially because of what happened after. Ben just nodded, signalling for Peter to continue.

After taking a deep breath, Peter began spilling everything. From his asthma attack, all the way to finding out he had powers; he even went far enough to explain the extent of his powers. Once he started talking, Peter found that he really couldn't stop. 

It felt so good for him to get all of this out there in the open. He's been keeping this a secret for over a week now and it's been eating at him. He's been sneaking around, figuring out exactly what he can do with his powers, and in that time, he's pushed away May and Ben and have been lying to them.

It felt great that one of his guardians knew. Maybe he could stop sneaking around. Maybe now he'll finally have someone to vent to that'll understand. Especially because his findings are startling. 

"Peter..." Ben trails off, not even sure what he was trying for when he began talking.

"I know. I know it's a lot, but I really do think I could be doing something great here. I've been gaining better control of my powers, and - maybe soon - I'll be able to actually help people with them." Peter excitedly says, Ben placing his hand on his shoulder to help settle him down.

"Let's just... wait on the whole hero-ing thing, Pete." Ben gently says, squeezing Peter's shoulder when he nodded and looked down at his lap.

"You're not mad... are you?" Peter quietly asks, shrinking more and more on himself.

"No, Petey, I'm not mad. Not about this, and not at you. I could never be mad." Ben reassures, wrapping his arm around Peter and pulling him close.

"What do we do now?" Peter whispers after a long pause.

"We _don't_ tell your Aunt, and we _do_ go out to Delmar's. We can figure out the rest as we go." Ben tells him, looking down and giving the boy a smile and one last squeeze. "Come on, I don't know about you, but I'm starving." 

Peter just let out a laugh, standing up and following his Uncle out of his bedroom.

The scene quickly changed to the two Parkers walking out of the sub shop, both laughing until they saw the rain pouring down.

"Here, put your hoodie up, Petey. Your Aunt would shoot us both if you got sick again because _I _let you walk in the rain." Ben says, both of them stopping so he could pull Peter's hood over his head. 

Present Peter, knowing exactly what was about to happen, quickly turned around so he wouldn't have to watch; which only paused the memory.

"Child, you know you can't do that." Loki says, trying not to make it seem like he was scolding the teen. 

"I can't. I can't watch this part. I can't watch Ben die because of me when I_ just stopped _watching him die in my dreams!" Peter shouts, snapping his head up to look at Loki. 

Almost instantly, Peter began to feel dizzy, causing him to all but plummet to the ground. Loki quickly caught him, setting them both gently on the ground, and holding Peter's body weight up.

"See? See what is happening to you, Child? Your body is becoming weakened by the demon that's causing all of this. If we do not get you out of here soon, you will surely die." Loki sternly tells Peter, who was slowly bringing himself out of the daze he was in. 

"I would rather die if it meant that Ben would still be here." Peter whispers, continuing to let himself be held by Loki.

"It doesn't work like that, Child, and you know it. You can't change anything that happens here." Loki reminds, making Peter choke on a sob. 

"But it's my fault." Peter cries, Loki slowly pulling him closer and hugging him tightly. 

"You may blame yourself for whatever it is that has happened, but unless you yourself killed your Uncle I can guarantee that it was not your fault." Loki tells the sobbing teen, knowing completely where he was coming from. Loki blames himself for so much death and destruction, and while most of it _was_ his fault, there were parts he had no control over, despite it coming from him. 

"It's difficult to not blame yourself for things that aren't your fault once you get it into your head that it is. It takes time and a lot of effort; both things we are severely lacking right now. So, for now, why don't we just try to get through this; rip the bandage off as you Midgardians say. We can deal with bearing the guilt once we're out of here and we are sure your soul isn't' about to be taken by a demon." Loki says, effectively getting Peter to lift his head from where it was placed on the God's chest. 

Once Peter glanced at his Uncle again, they could see a man in a hoodie swiftly walk up and place a gun against Ben's neck.

"Give me your wallet, your keys, your phone, anything of value. _Now." _ The robber says, making both Ben and Peter freeze up.

Slowly Ben removed his hands from where it was fixing Peter's hoodie and held them up to show that he was surrendering. The man pulled the gun away a bit, but not far enough to allow ease to set in, allowing Ben to turn around and face the man. 

"Now, we don't want any trouble. Just put the gun down and lets figure this thing out." Ben calmly says, Peter looking between the two men in fear. He was itching to do something, but he wasn't sure what - it's not like he's fought someone before - and the gun pointed at his Uncle just made him freeze completely.

"He's a cop, you know? He can have you arrested faster than you can say 'robber'." Peter instead chooses to say.

"Peter, stop." Ben grits out once he realized that just pulled the attention of the robber off of him and onto the boy.

"What did you just say? You think you're tough, huh?" The guy asks, Peter taking a deep breath in as the man pointed the gun at him.

_'You have powers now, Peter, now is not the time to be a little pussy. Isn't this just what you told Ben? That you think you can do something with them? Prove it.' _Peter tells himself in his head before barging at the man.

Present Peter knows now where he went wrong. Now that he's had some proper training and actually knows how to fight, he knows where his past-self went wrong. 

Peter threw his weight at the robber, making it easy for him to lose his balance. As if in slow motion, the robber just pushed Peter off of him and to the ground, giving him time to shoot Ben, and take off with his wallet. 

_"Ben!"_ Peter screams, pulling himself off of the ground and running over to where his Uncle had just fallen. "Ben!" Peter shouts, instantly putting his hands over the bullet hole in his Uncle's chest.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so so sorry. I thought I could take him, I thought I could help. I'm so sorry." Peter apologizes over and over again, looking over his shoulder to look inside the sub shop.

"Help! Please, help!" Peter shout, making Mr. Delmar run out of the shop, only to run right back in when he saw the bloodied mess in the road.

"You're going to be okay. It's going to be okay, Ben." Peter whimpers, pressing harder when he saw blood pooling out between his fingers. Ben slowly wrapped his finger around Peter's wrist, getting the sobbing teen to look at him. 

"Peter... I need you... to remember... with great power... comes... great responsibility... never... forget." Ben chokes out, the breaths he's been taking in becoming shallower and far and few in-between, until they quickly stopped. 

"Uncle Ben?" Peter asks, slowly letting up off of the bullet hole only to press down once again just in case "Uncle Ben?" Peter asks once again, the grip Ben had on Peter's wrist loosening.

"Uncle Ben! No! No, no, no, no! Uncle Ben!" Peter sobs, trying to shake Ben awake, even though his eyes weren't even closed. 

Police officers and an ambulance quickly show up, one of the officers - who happened to be Ben's partner - quickly pried Peter off of his Uncle.

"No! Let me go! That's my Uncle! Please! Let me go! Uncle Ben! Please! Please." Peter begs, going limp in the officer's grip and all but laying on the ground as he watches the EMT's try and fail to save his Uncle. 

They slowly closed the body bag around him, ending the memory there. 

Loki slowly looked down at the teen in his arms, completely unsure of where to even begin. All he knew was that what had happened was not the teen's fault. 

"If I had listened, if I had just kept my mouth shut and didn't provoke the man, Ben would still be here." Peter whispers, staring at his hand with the knowledge that if he looked up the tears would flow down his face once again. 

"Child-"

"Loki, don't. Please, just... don't. You're going to say the same thing I've been hearing for the past two-and-a-half-years and I just... don't want to hear it anymore. I don't want to do this anymore. Can we please hurry up? This isn't the last death we're going to see." Peter says, wiping his face and taking a deep breath in, trying everything to come across as put together. 

Figuring Peter more than needed this distraction, Loki gladly made the next good memory appear.

The scene around the teen and god instantly changed, going from a cold and raining night, to a bright and sunshiny day. 

Memory Peter was now walking into the apartment building, clearly just getting out of school. Present Peter couldn't help but let out a relived, and somewhat hysterical, chuckle out when he saw the DVD player he was carrying. A dead giveaway to what this memory was.

"This is when I met Tony." Peter mutters, following his past self into the apartment building up to his apartment. 

Memory Peter quickly unlocked the apartment door, focusing mainly on dropping his heavy backpack somewhere and getting his hands on the DVD player he found in the dumpster.

"Hey May." Peter grunts in greeting, trying to shift his backpack back onto his shoulder. Due to everything he was focusing on, he wasn't quite looking at where his Aunt was actually at, knowing that she was probably just in the same spot as usual.

"Hey. How was school today?" May asks as Peter starts depositing stuff off all over the apartment, walking through the kitchen to get to the living room.

"It was okay." Peter says, finally turning to face where his Aunt was sitting. "There's this crazy car parked outside." Peter says, stopping dead in his tracks and slowly pulling out his earbud when he saw who was sitting in the living room with his Aunt.

Tony Stark. 

_Tony Stark._

The man that Peter's been looking up to since he could remember. One of the smartest men in the entire world. His own personal hero. Sitting there in his living room, with his Aunt, eating a walnut loaf like it was the most normal thing.

"Oh, Mister Parker." Tony greets nonchalantly. 

"Umm.. Wha-What are you doing- Hey! Uh, um-um-um I'm Peter." Peter stammers a bit breathlessly, not quite being able to believe his eyes.

"Tony." Tony introduces himself as if Peter had never heard of him before; as if he wasn't the most recognizable person. 

"Wha-What are- What are you doing here?" Peter asks, May giving him a look that showed she was just as baffled as he was. 

"It's about time we met. You've been getting my emails, right?" Tony asks, attempting to get Peter to go along with what he was saying.

Present Peter couldn't help the laugh that escaped him though when he noticed Tony tried winking with the eye that was bruised before quickly switching to his good eye. 

"Yeah. Yeah." Peter was quick to agree, unsure of what exactly he was agreeing to. "Regarding the..." Peter trails off, not even knowing where he was going with that sentence. 

"You didn't tell me about the grant." May says, unknowingly giving Peter the information he needed.

"About the grant." He parroted.

"The September Foundation." Tony continues to supply, Peter just agreeing and going along with it. "Remember when you applied?" Tony asks.

"Yeah." 

"I approved, so now we're in business." Tony says, May giving Peter a completely baffled look. 

"But you didn't tell me anything. What's up with that? You keeping secrets from me now?" May asks, sounding more concerned than upset or hurt.

"I just know how much you love surprises so I thought I would let you know..." Peter trails off once again, knowing that if he started getting deep into details, May would find out that he was lying. "Anyway, what exactly did I apply for?" Peter quickly asks Tony, trying anything to weasel more information out of the billionaire.

"That's what I'm here to hash out." Tony tells him, being no help at all.

"Okay. H-Ha-Hash it out, okay." 

"It's so hard for me to believe that she's someone's Aunt." tony comments, making both Peters cringe.

"Yeah, well, we come in all shapes and sizes, you know?" May chuckles, memory Peter looking back and forth between the two adults, not quite liking the flirting that was going on. 

"This walnut date loaf is exceptional." Tony comments, holding up his piece and getting completely sidetracked.

"Let me just stop you there." Peter interrupts, not wanting this to go on any further. "Does this grant got... money involved... or whatever? No?" Peter awkwardly asks.

"Yeah, it's pretty well funded. I mean, look at who you're talking to." Tony says, turning towards May after. "Can I have five minutes with him?" He asks.

"Sure." May agrees, Peter leading Tony into his bedroom. 

As soon as they were in there, Tony shut and locked the bedroom door, making Peter look down at the ground and will his anxiety to calm down for a second. He had to remind himself that this was not a Skip situation, that Tony Stark was a hero and wouldn't just randomly show up at someone's house to hurt them. 

Peter watched out of the side of his eye as Tony all but ran to the trash can Peter had by his desk, spitting out the food he had sitting in his mouth.

"As walnut date loaves go, that wasn't bad." Tony says, as if that explained everything. "Whoa, what have we here? Retro tech, huh? Thrift store? Salvation Army?" Tony asks, turning and pointing at all of the computers and technology Peter had on his desk.

"Uh, the garbage, actually." Peter answers him, as if this was the most normal situation ever. 

"You're a dumpster diver." Tony states.

"Yeah, I was-" Peter begins to defend and explain himself, quickly cutting himself off before they both got off track again. "An-Anyway, look, um... I definitely did not apply for your grant-" Peter tries to say, Tony quickly jumping in.

"Ah-ah! Me first." Tony says, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his phone. "Quick question of the rhetorical variety," Tony says, showing Peter a video of him swinging around the city as Spider-Man. 

"That's you, right?" 

"Umm, no. W-What do you mean?" Peter feigns innocence. 

"Yeah. Look at you go." Tony pushes, the video showing Peter stopping a car from slamming into the side of a bus with his bare hands. "Wow! Nice catch. Three-thousand pounds, forty miles an hour. That's not easy. You got mad skills."

"That's- That's all on YouTube, though, right? I mean, that's where you found that? Because you know that's all fake; it's all done on the computer." Peter continues to deny, Tony looking around the room. "It's like that video. What is it?"

"Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, you mean like those UFOs over Phoenix?" Tony murmurs, grabbing a stick he found by Peter's desk and using it to open the sky light; a cloth suit falling down as he did so. "Oh, what have we here?" 

Peter turned around, instantly running and grabbing the hand-made suit, throwing it into his closet and leaning against the door way of it, attempting to appear nonchalant. 

"So, you're the Spider-ling. Crime-fighting spider. You're Spider-boy?" Tony questions, Peter looking down for a second in embarrassment.

"S-Spider-Man." Peter corrects. 

"Not in that onesie, you're not." 

"It's not a onesie.," Peter corrects, walking back over to his desk. "I don't believe this. I was actually having a really good day today, you know, Mister Stark. Didn't miss my train, there was this perfectly good DVD player that was just sitting there and Algebra test; nailed it." 

"Who else knows? Anybody?" Tony asks, Peter instantly thinking back to his Uncle. Thinking about how he found out and what happened afterwards. Peter just shook his head, quickly swallowing the lump away before answering. 

"Nobody."

"Not even your unusually attractive Aunt?" Tony questions, looking down at the homemade suit in his hands. 

"No. No. No, no, no! If she knew, she would freak out. And when she freaks out, I freak out." Peter tells the billionaire, looking back down at all the scraps on his desk.

"You know what I think is really cool? This webbing." Tony says, throwing it at Peter who simply caught it without even having to look. "That tensile strength is off the charts. Who manufactured that?" 

"I did." Peter answers, throwing the cart of webbing back into the closet while Tony tries to conceal the impressed look on his face. 

"Climbing walls? How do you do that? Adhesive gloves?" Tony continues to question, looking at the suit to try and find the trick. 

"It's a long story. I was-"

"Lordy! Can you even see in these?" Tony asks, taking the goggles that were attached to the mask and putting them up to his eyes; effectively annoying Peter in the process. "Ahh, I'm blind!"

"Yes! Yes, I can." Peter says, taking the suit away and shoving it far into his closet. "I- I can see in those. It's just that when whatever happened, happened, it's like my sense have been dialed to eleven. There's just way too much input, so they just kind of help keep me focused." Peter explains.

"You're in dire need of an upgrade. Systemic, top to bottom, hundred-point restoration. That's why I'm here." Tony says, Peter giving him a semi-shocked look as he made his way over and sat down on his bed. 

"Why are you doing this? I gotta know, what's your MO? What gets you out of that twin bed in the morning?" Tony asks, images of Ben bleeding out on the side of the road flashing through Peter's mind.

"Because..." Peter starts, stammering before stopping, trying to gather his thoughts first and rid of the flashes of that night.

"Because I've been me my whole life, and I've had these powers for six months. I read books, I build computers. Yeah, I would love to play football, but I couldn't then, so I shouldn't now." Peter starts explaining. 

"Sure, because you're different." Tony agrees.

"Exactly. But I can't tell anybody that, so I'm not." Peter says, having to look away and swallow hard before saying his next thought. 

"When you can do the things that I can, but you don't - and then the bad things happen - they happen because of you." Peter says, both him and Tony having to look away due to the heaviness of the statement. 

"So you want to look out for the little guy, you wanna do your part? Make the world a better place and all that, right?" Tony asks after a beat of silence. 

"Yeah. Yeah, yeah, just looking out for the little guy. Th-That's what it is." Peter agrees, watching Tony get up from the chair he was sitting in and walk up right next to him. 

"I'm going to sit here, so you move the leg." Tony says, pointing to the leg Peter had propped up on his bed. 

Tony gently sat down on the bed next to Peter, hesitantly and awkwardly placing his hand on the teen's shoulder. 

"You ever hear of the Avengers?" Tony asks, Peter's head snapping up to look at him.

"Uhh, y-yeah. A-Are you asking me-"

"No. We do training on Thursdays. You're young, reckless, and don't know what you're doing. I suggest you come." Tony says, making Peter hesitate.

"I can't go to training." He says, not even knowing how he will begin to lie about that to May.

"Why?"

"I got... homework." Peter lamely says, making Tony have to take a second to actually register it. 

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that." Tony says, getting up off of the bed. 

"N-No, I'm being serious. I can't just drop out of school." Peter protests, as Tony makes his way to the door.

"Might be a little dangerous at times; sometimes we don't hold back. Better tell Aunt Hottie what we're planning on doing." Tony threatens, making Peter snap up. As soon as Tony's hand touched the door handle, Peter shot off his web-shooter, making the billionaire stick to it. 

"Don't tell Aunt May." Peter demands, Tony realizing that he was serious.

"Alright, Spider-Man." Tony agrees, both of them staring in mutual agreement. "Get me out of this."

"Sorry, I'll get the solvent." Peter murmurs, the memory ending as he walked towards his desk. 

"Well that explains how you and Stark met." Loki comments once he realized the memory was over. Peter went to reply, but another dizzy spell took over him, making him sway and fall to his knees.

"Child, you're running out of time. We must continue on to the next memory." Loki says, holding Peter from under his arms, trying to help pull him back up to his feet.

Peter just nodded and shakily stood up, following Loki out the bedroom door and into whatever hell is coming next. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this took so long. I feel like I keep coming up with excuses but this time was because of the virus. I had to move home from where I was living while going to college and it's been a hard time since. But I'm okay now! I also changed this up and made it so Ben found out about Spider-Man. I wanted it that way because I wanted "with great power comes great responsibility" to hit a lot harder and it also helps a lot more with Peter's incentive to be Spider-Man. Tell me what you think on my Tumblr @Skeeter_110!! I know it was a bit of a risky move. Remember April's distance brings May's existence! Stay safe out there!!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki learns about something called "Homecoming" and how, if Peter is involved, dangerous one could be. Also about how Tony slowly became Peter's fifth parent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What a treat for you guys!! I finished this today and figured that I would post it for you guys now since I originally said I post on Fridays. Also, this took me forever to write!! It was super long and I had to watch the movie and continuously pause it just to be able to get the dialogue. I honestly think one scene took about an hour to do. Plus, if it seems all over the place that's because I didn't want to do the whole movie and put in the parts I felt were important to get to the end (also sorry if the formatting is weird, I didn't write it on my usual laptop. Hopefully you enjoy it!!

Once Loki and Peter walked out of the apartment building, the scene quickly changes to a gym filled with a bunch of kids.

Memory Peter was laying on a mat, Ned holding his legs for him. Present Peter couldn't help but roll his eyes, knowing this was just setting the base for what was the worst month for him.

"This was my homecoming, last year." Peter tells Loki, surprised when that didn't start the memory up. 

"Clearly that is not what this memory is truly about, Child. What happened during this so-called 'homecoming'?" Loki says, Peter huffing in return.

"This is when I fight the Vulture." 

Sure enough, right after those words were spoken, the memory started up.

"Do you know what the Hulk smells like? I bet he smells nice." Ned asks while Peter does sit-ups.

"You have to shut up." Peter whispers, knowing that if Ned continued to talk about this, someone was bound to hear. 

"Is Captain America cool, or is he like a mean, old grandpa?" Ned continues his avalanche of questions. 

"Ned, just... shh, okay?"

"Hey, can I be your guy in the chair?" 

"What?"

"Yeah. You know how there's a guy with a headset, telling the other guy where to go? Like-Like if you're in a burning building, I could tell you where to go. There'd be screen around me and I could swivel around. I could be your guy in the chair." Ned says, clearly set on being Peter's guy in the chair.

"Ned, I don't need a guy in the chair." Peter declines.

"Looking good, Parker." Coach Wilson says, making Peter realize he was doing too many sit-ups too fast. 

"Now, see, for me, it would be 'F' Thor, marry Iron Man, and kill the hulk." A girl with blonde hair that was sitting over on the bleachers with a group says, gaining Peter and Ned's attention.

"Well, what about the Spider-Man?" Another brunette girl that was also sitting in the group asks.

"It's just Spider-Man." The blonde girl shrugs off, making the other girl in the group, Liz, speak up

"Did you see the bank security cam on YouTube? He fought of four guys." Liz says, clearly impressed.

"Oh, my God, she's crushing on Spider-Man." the blonde teases.

"No way."

"Kind of." Liz admits.

"Oh, gross. He's probably thirty." The blonde tells her.

"You don't know what he looks like. Like, what if he's seriously burned?" The brunette girls asks. 

"I wouldn't care. I'd love him for the person he is inside." Liz tells them, the answer, for whatever reason, impairing Ned's sense of decision making. 

"Peter knows Spider-Man!" Ned blurts out, causing the entire gym to fall silent, and Peter to look at his best friend in complete shock. 

"Uhh, no, I don't. no. I-I mean-" Peter tries to fix the mess his friend got him into, getting up and walking towards the group a bit. 

"They're friends." Ned says, obviously not picking up on the social cues and his friend's silent please for him to stop talking. 

"Yeah, like Coach Wilson and Captain America are friends." Another teen boy, Flash, says, hoping down from the rope he was climbing to walk over where Peter and Ned were. 

"I-I've meet him, yeah. A couple of times. But it's, umm, through the Stark Internship." Peter lies, Flash getting closer to where they were, his disbelieving look getting worse. "Yeah, I'm not really supposed to talk about it." Peter adds, aiming that last part towards Ned. 

"Well, that's awesome. Hey, you know what? Maybe you should invite him to Liz's party. Right?" Flash says, making Peter even more nervous about the hole he got dug into. 

"Yeah, I'm having people over tonight. You're more than welcome to come." Liz invites. 

"Having a party?" Peter questions.

"Yeah, it's gonna be dope. You should totally invite your personal friend Spider-Man." Flash says, making Peter swallow hard.

"It's okay. I know Peter's way too busy for parties anyway so." Liz says, Flash not backing down.

"Come on. He'll be there. Right, Parker?" Flash asks, Peter being saved by the bell; quite literally. 

As soon as everyone was gone, Peer whipped around to face Ned, the anger and frustration clear on his face.

"What are you doing?" Peter grits out.

"Helping you out. Did you not hear her? Liz has a crush on you." Ned points out, rendering Peter speechless for a second. "Dude, you're an Avenger. If any one of us has a chance with a senior girl, it's you." Ned says before walking away.

"Well, this seems awfully mild for a bad memory." Loki comments as they begin to follow memory Peter out of the gym.

"Just wait, this was only setting a base." Present Peter mumbles as they walk out of the gym.

the scene quickly changed to night-time. Ned and Peter both in Aunt May's car as they pull up to a fancy looking house.

"House Party in the suburbs. Oh, I remember theses. Kind of jealous." Aunt May comments as she stops the car.

"It'll be a night to remember." Ned says, makin gaunt May look back at him.

"Ned, some hats wear men, but you wear that hat." May compliments, making Ned beams.

"Yeah, it gives me confidence." 

"This was a mistake." Peter whispers, stopping their conversation. "Hey, let's just go home." 

"Oh, Peter. I know. I know it's really hard trying to fit in with all the changes your body's going through. It's flowering now." Aunt May says, getting a sarcastic laugh out of Peter. "He's so stressed out lately." May comments to Ned.

"What helps with stress is going to a party. We should go to the party." Ned says trying to push Peter into it without giving away the real reason to May.

"Yeah, let's do it. I'm gonna go." Peter says, slowly psyching himself up to it. 

"Peter," Aunt May calls out once the teen got out of the car. "Have fun, okay?" May says, once he turned back around.

"I will." Peter confirms before walking away towards Ned, who was saying goodbye to the older woman. 

"Dude, you have the suit, right?" Ned whispers, Peter rolling his sleeve up slightly to show that he had it on under his clothes.

"This is going to change our lives." Ned says as they walk into the house. 

Once they got into the house, they found a small area that wasn't being bombarded by people to talk about their game-plan. 

"Okay. We're gonna have Spider-Man swing in, say you guys are tight, and I get a fist bump, or one of those half bro-hugs." Ned says, both boys getting interrupted by another voice.

"Can't believe you're at this lame party." M.J says, confusing both boys.

"But, you're here too." Ned points out.

"Am I?" She asks in return, Liz interrupting before either teen could ask too much about what that was about. 

"Hey, guys. Cool hat, Ned."

"Hi, Liz."

"Hi, Liz." Both boys greet.

"I'm so happy you guys came. There's pizza and drinks. Help yourself." Liz offers.

"What a great party." Peter compliments.

"Thanks." Liz says, both of them staring at each other for a bit until something breaking tears their gaze apart. "Oh, I- My parents will kill me if anything's broken. I gotta-" Liz says, nodding towards where the noise came from before making her getaway. 

"Dude, what are you doing? She's here. Spider it up." Ned says, snapping Peter out of his crush-induced daze. 

"No, no, no. I can't- I cannot do this. Spider-Man is not a party trick, okay? Look, I'm just gonna be myself." Peter says, making Ned sigh and roll his eyes.

"Peter, no one wants that." Ned says, making Peter's face scrunch up. 

"Dude." He says, before walking away. Which was a big mistake.

"Penis Parker, what's up?!" Flash shouts through the microphone. "So, where's your pal Spider-Man? Let me guess: in Canada with your imaginary girlfriend? That's not Spider-Man, that's just Ned in a red shirt." Flash teases, being the push Peter needed. 

In the blink of an eye, the scene changed to Peter on top of the roof, changing out of his clothes standing in only his suit. 

"Child, I'm confused." Loki says, interrupting memory Peter practicing what he was going to say once he got into the party.

"Just wait, an explosion is going to happen in three... two...one..." Peter says and sure enough, there was a giant blue explosion that could be seen over the trees. 

"What the hell?" Memory Peter whispers once he caught glimpse of whatever that was. 

Instantly, Peter began to run along the roof, swinging off towards the explosion. Once he got there, he climb into a tree, watching two arms dealers talk about the weapon they were shooting off, which caused the explosion in the first place. 

"Oh, this must be where the ATM robbers got their stuff." Peter comments, remembering the big bank robbery he stopped. 

Peter tried to keep listening in on the conversation in hopes that information about who was supply this stuff would be revealed when his phone began ringing. Peter pulled out his phone, turning it off and hoping out of the tree when he saw that one of the dealers pulled a gun on the man that was trying to buy the weapons. 

"Hey! Hey, come on. You gonna shoot at somebody, shoot at me." Peter says, the man with the gun easily agreeing and pointing it towards Peter. 

Before the man could even put his finger on the trigger, Peter shot out a web, effectively pulling the gun away from the man.He began to charge the dealers, not realizing that one went into the van and grab one of the alien weapons until he was punch and thrown back with it. 

The dealers quickly got into their van and began to drive off. Not wanting to let them get away, Peter shot a web at the back of the van, being pulled with it as it went. The van began driving down the street, Peter barely being able to shoot another web so he wasn't flying all over the place. 

The man that punched Peter earlier grabbed another alien weapon, shooting at Peter. Thankfully he missed and hit the door of the van. He kept shooting at Peter until the man driving hit a bump, causing the weapon to fly out of his hands and ultimately be destroyed. 

The man driving pulled to the side of the street, making Peter run into a bunch of trash cans and a brick wall; making him lose grip of the web he had.Peter shot another web at the van door, hoping that he could continue following the van, but the door flew off making Peter scoff.

"Great. Guess I'm gonna have to take a shortcut." Peter says to himself, running through a bunch of people's yards.

He was just able to catch up with the van, jumping off of the roof he was on to land on the van. This plan was completely derailed, though, when Peter was plucked right out of the air by a man in a vulture costume. 

Peter tried to get the man to release his grip on his foot, until he realized how high up they were getting. Before the vulture could drop Peter, a parachute flew out from the back of his suit, making Peter fall backwards towards the ground. 

Unfortunately, Peter got all tangle up in the parachute as he was falling, which didn't help as he landed in a lake. Peter continued to struggle in the parachute, unable to get out, as he sunk lower and lower into the lake. 

Before Peter could begin breathing in too much water, an Iron Man suit flew into the water, untangling Peter from the cloth death trap and pulling him out of the water. 

"Child, you almost die way too much for my liking." Loki comments while they watch Peter get chewed out by Tony.

"Yeah, well, don't you're not going to like the rest of this memory then." Peter says, making Loki look at him confused.

"What are you talking about. Is you almost drowning not worse enough?" Loki asks, pretty sure that the Iron Man suit flying off should have ended the memory.

"It really only gets worse from here, I'm pretty sure the memory isn't done." Peter says and, sure enough, one he brought his attention back onto the memory, the scene changed to them on a ferry.

Memory Peter was staring a group a men, one of which was the man driving the van previously. Overhearing them say something about a white pickup truck, Peter sent his drone to search the ferry for one. 

"Oh this is perfect." Peter says, looking through the footage his drone was sending him. "They got the weapons, the buyers, and the sellers all in one place." Peter whispers to himself, his victory being interrupted by Karen. 

_'Incoming call from Tony Stark.' _

"No, no, no, don't answer." Peter says, Karen clearly not listening because Tony's face was soon put on the screen of his mask.

"Mister Parker. Got a sec?" Tony greets.

"Uh.. I'm actually at school." Peter lies.

_'No, you're not.' _Karen comments, clearly not understanding when and when not to correct Peter.

"Nice work in D.C." Tony compliments, Peter not really listening to what he had to say. "My dad never really gave me a lot of support and i'm just trying to, uhh, break the cycle of shame."

"Uhh, I'm kind of in the middle of something right now." Peter tries to interupt.

"Don't cut me off when I'm complimenting you. Anyway, great things are about to-" Tony cntinues, getting cut off by the ship's horn blaring. "What is that?"

"Uhh, I'm at... band practice." Peter hesitantly lies. 

"That's odd. Happy told me you quit band six weeks ago. What's up?" Tony calls Peter out, only making him panic eben more.

"Uhh, I gotta go. End call." Peter says, ignoring Tony's protest in exchange for webbing the keys that were in one of the weapon dealers hands. 

Peter quickly hopped down to where the men were, harrasing them while he tried to disarm and web them all up. 

Peter glanced down where all of the car were, seeing that there was one more man he needed to take care of. As soon as he went to do so, though, the FBI showed up, shouting and making Peter put his hands up.

This was a big enough distraction for the vulture to appear once again. He began shooting an alien weapon off, while Peter shot web afer web in hopes that it would slow the villian down. 

Peter eventually managed to wrangle the weapon away from the vulture, webbing it down the floor of the ferry. Becasuse of it, the weapon began shooting off randomly, causing the ferry to be split right in half.; also causing another distraction to which the vulture escaped with. 

"Oh, my God. What do I do? Karen, give me an x-ray of the boat and target all the strongest points." Peter says, snapping into action to try and stop the boat from sinking like the Titanic. 

Once Karen showed Peter the points he began placing web after web through there, trying to tie the boat back together. 

Once he was done he stepped back to catch his breath, Karen telling him that he managed to be nintey-eight percent successful. 

Of course, the other two percent took over and quickly his webs began breaking, casuing the boat to split and sink again. 

Peter quickly jumped in the middle of the two pieces of boat, shooting a piece of web on each side. He attempted to pull them together, only getting so far before they started to push together without him.

"What the hell?" Peter asks, dropping down as the two pieces continued to be pushed back together. It wasn't until Peter looked up and saw an Iron Man suit did he understand.

"Hi, Spider-Man. Band practice, was it?" Tony asks, quickly getting the boat pieces back together and wielded shut. 

The scene quickly changed to Peter sitting on the side of a roof, mask off and looking completely defeated. 

"Previously on 'Peter screws the pooch.' I tell you to stay away from this. Instead, you hacked a multi-million-dollar suit so you can sneak around behind my back doing the _one thing_ I told you not to do." Tony begins to lecture.

"Is everyone okay?" Peter asks.

"No thanks to you." Tony replies, that one statement clearly being the one to tip Peter over the edge.

"No thanks to me? Those weapons were out there, and I tried to tell you about it, but you didn't listen. None of this would have happened if you had just listened to me! If you even cared, you'd actually be here." Peter finishes yelling, just sounding plain dejected at the end. 

Taking the challenge, Tony quickly got out of the suit, effectively proving that he was there and effectively shutting Peter up. 

"I did listen, Kid. Who do you think called the FBI, huh? Do you know I was the only one who believed in you? Everyone else said I was crazy to recruit a fourteen-year-old kid." Tony says.

"I'm fifteen." Peter corrects.

"No, this is where you zip it, all right? The adult is talking! What if somebody had died tonight? Different story, right? Because that's on _you_. And if you died... I feel like that's on me. I don't need that on my conscience." 

"I'm sorry. I understand." Peter tries to apologize. 

"'Sorry doesn't cut it."

"I just wanted to be like you." Peter admits.

"And I wanted you to be better." Tony says, making both memory Peter and present Peter look away.

"Child?" Loki asks, curious as to why Peter stopped the memory. 

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't be upset about this when this is definitely not the worst thing we've seen so far. It's just... seeing him so disappointed in me still hurts. He's-He's my Dad now, you know? And you want so desperately to impress your Father all the time." Peter explains. 

"I know all too well, Child." Loki says, Peter sighing and turning back to the memory.

"It's not working out. I'm gonna need the suit back." tony says once the memory continued.

"For how long?" Memory Peter asks.

"Forever."

"No."

"Yeah, that's how it works."

"No, no. Please. Please, this is all I have. I'm nothing without this suit." Peter begs.

"If you're nothing without this suit, then you shouldn't have it. Okay? god, I sound like my dad." 

"I don't have any other clothes." Peter whispers, knowing that it was pointless for him to continue fighting this. 

"Okay, we'll sort that out." Tony says, making the scene quickly change to Peter standing in front of the ssame house he was at when he was going to the part, instead he was wearing a tux and holding a box with a flower in it. 

"Child, what is happening here?" Loki asks, making Peter blush a bit.

"I'm picking up a girl for homecoming." Peter explains, chuckling a bit at Loki's confused expression.

"It's a fancy dance my school puts on." Peter explains, Loki nodding.

"So like a ball." Loki says.

"Yeah, kind of." Peter tells him, putting his attention back onto the memory.

Memory Peter rang the doorbell to the house, letting out a nervoous breath as he waited for someone to answer the door. 

As soon as the door opened, Peter's heart sunk to his stomach because he instantly reconized the man that opened the door to be one of the men that was selling the weapons on the ferry. 

"You must be Peter." The man greets.

"Yeah." Peter answers shortly, trying to push down the nausea he felt in that moment. 

"I'm Liz's Dad. Put her there." Toomes says, holding his hand out for Peter to shake. "Hell of a grip." Toomes comments as he lets Peter into the house.

Peter slowly follows Toomes into the house, not wanting to be too close to a man that dangerous. He just had to keep reminding himself that toomes didn't know he was Spider-Man and that he wouldn't hurt a random teenager. 

"Hey, Peter. You look very handsome." Liz's mom greets, making Peter jump and turn to face her. 

"Thank you." Peter says, not really listening to what Liz's parents were saying as they got to the kitchen. All he knew was that Liz's mom was quuickly walking out of the room, leaving Peter and Liz's Dad by themselves. 

"You alright, Pete? Because you look pale." Adrian comments. "You want something to drink? A bourbon or a scotch, or something like that?"

"I'm not old enough to drink." Peter snaps himself out of it long enough to answer.

"That's the right answer." Toomes says, smiling at the teen before glancing over his shoulder. "Wow. Wow, wow, wow, do you look beautiful." Adrain says once Liz begins wallking into the room.

"Please don't embarrass me, Dad." Liz pleads.

"Doesn't she, Pete?" Adrian asks, once again snapping Peter out of it.

"Yeah, you look really good."

"Once again, that's the right answer." Adrian teases. 

Peter couldn't stop staring at the man in front of hiim, wondeirng to himself how, _how_, could this night be derailing so fast. 

"Well, I'm your chauffer, so why don't we get this show on the road?" Adrian asks, Liz's mom quickly getting pictures of the two of them before they left. 

The scene quickly changed to them sitting in front of the school, Liz leaving the car and, once again, leaving Peter alone with Toomes. 

Toomes subtly reached over in the front seat, grabbing a gun before turning around to face Peter.

"Does she know?" Adrian asks, Peter trying to pull a confused look.

"Know what?'

"So she doesn't. Good. Close to the vest. I admire that. I've got a few secrets of my own. Of all the reasons I didn't want my daughter to date. Peter, nothing is more important than family. You saved my daughters life. I could never forget something like that. So I'm gonna give you one chance. Are you ready? You walk through those doors, you forget any of this happened, and don't you ever, ever, interfere with my business again. Because if you do, I'll kill you, and everybody you've loved. I'll kill you dead. That's what I'll do to protect my family. Do you understand?" Toomes threatens, Peter looking down at his lap unsure of what to say.

"Hey." Toomes says when he realized Peter wasn't going to respond. "I just saved your life. Now, what do you say?" 

"Thank you." Peter reluctantly responds. 

"You're welcome. Now, you go in there and you show my daughter a good time, okay? Just not too good." Toomes says, Peter slowly climbing out of the car and into the school where the dance was. 

Peter walked in and walked straight up to Liz, already knowing what it was he had to do.

"Hey. What did he say to you?" Liz teasingly asks, not seeing the dazed and terrified look on Peter face,

"Gotta go. I-I'm sorry. You don't deserve this." Peter tells her before running down the hall and grabbing his old homemade suit. 

As soon as he put it on, he ran out one of the side doors in the school, instantly the scene changing to Peter standing in the middle of a warehouse with Toomes.

"Hey!" Peter calls out, getting the older man's attention. 

"Oh, hey, Pete. I didn't hear you come in." Adrian casually greets. 

"It's over. I've got you." Peter says, continuing to walk closer to the man. 

"You know, I gotta tell you, Pete, I really really admire your grit. I see why Liz likes you. I do. When you first came to the house, I wasn't sure. I thought, 'Really?' but I get it now." Adrian rambles.

"How could you do this to her?" Peter asks.

"To her? I'm not doing anything to her, Pete. I'm doing this _for_ her." Adrain explains.

"Yeah." Peter says, webbing Toomes' hand to the table he was standing at. 

"Peter, you're young. You don't understand how the world works." Toomes says.

"Yeah, but I understand that selling weapons to criminals is wrong." Peter tells him.

"How do you think your buddy Stark paid for that tower? Or any of those toys? Those people, Pete, those people up there, the rich and the powerful, they do whatever they want. Guys like us - like you and me - They don't care about us. We build their roads, and we fight their wars, and everything, but they don't care about us. We have to pick up after them, we have to eat their table scraps. That's how it is. I know you know what I'm talking about, Peter." Toomes rants.

"Why are you telling me this?" Peter asks. 

"Because I want you to understand. And... I needed a little more time to get her airborne." Toomes says, clicking a button that made the sharp wings he wore as the Vulture come through. 

The wings flew at Peter, making him dodge them left and right as Toomes cut himself free from the webs his hand was in. 

"I'm sorry Peter." Adrian apologizes, confusing Peter. 

"What are you talking about? That thing hasn't even touched me yet." Peter points out unaware of what was really happening. 

"True. Then again, wasn't really trying to." Tomes says, making Peter aware that all the wings have been doing was cutting all the support beams in half. 

Unfortunately he realized it too late, when the building already fell on top of him. 

As soon as Memory Peter fell, Present Peter fell also, another dizzy spell taking over him. 

"Child." Loki says, holding Peter under his arms so he wouldn't fall face first. 

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Peter says after a few seconds when he was sure he could stand up without falling again.

"We must continue." Loki says, the urgency in his vice telling Peter how little time they had left. 

Once the memory started again, Memory Peter was whimper, barely being able to pull his mask off so he could breathe. 

"Okay, ready." Peter whispers to himself before trying to lift the building off of him. 

"Hello?!" Peter screams, practically hyperventilating when he could lift the building off of him. "Hello! Please, hey. Hey, please, I'm down here. I'm stuck. I'm stuck. I can't move. I can't-" Peter cries, giving up when he realized that no one was going to be able to hear him.

Peter slowly look up, looking at his mask that was now in the puddle, seeing his reflection looking back at him. 

He thought back to Tony's words, about how if he was nothing without the suit then he shouldn't have it. He needed to prove himself. Not only to tony, but to himself as well. He was Spider-Man, the suit doesn't make him that, he does.

"Come on, Peter. Come on, Spider-Man. Come on, Spider-Man. Come on, Spider-Man." Peter chants, encouraging himself as he attempted to push the building off once again.

"Come on, Spider-Man!" Peter screams, that being the push he needed to fully stand up and push the building right off of him. 

The memory ended with Peter standing on top of the rubble victorious.

Before Loki or present Peter could even comment on any of it, Peter fell back to the ground, grabbing at his chest and gasping. 

"I knew the was something off about this memory. The demon was making it longer on purpose. She made it longer so she could have more time to try and get your soul. We are officially running out of time, Child." Loki says, pulling Peter up to lean against him.

"Hurts." Peter gasps, Loki rubbing the teens back to try and ease the pain.

"I know, Child. It'll be over soon. We're almost to the end." Loki reassures.

"Lets-Lets just keep going. No-No good memory, lets just go to the next one the demon is making me see." Peter says, taking another deep breath as the pain begins to fade.

"Are you sure?" Loki asks, getting a nod out of Peter. 

"As you wish." Loki says, standing them up and moving on to the next thing. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys!! We are so very close to the end of this story!! It's crazy! Next chapter is the last one before the epilogue!! Tell me what you think on my tumblr: Skeeter_110!!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki learns about how Peter loses his fourth parent and how Tony officially became his fifth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone who celebrates the holiday had a nice and safe Easter and here's the last chapter before the Epilogue!!

Loki and Present Peter now found themselves on a roof in the middle of the night, watching as memory Peter was frozen, swinging through the buildings as Spider-Man. 

Before Loki could even ask if Peter knew what this memory was, a shudder went through Peter's body before he dropped to the ground, his skin as white as a ghost. 

Loki held him as he gasped for air, knowing that they didn't have much time left and hoping that this was the last memory.

  
"Aunt May dies." Peter gasps, not even bothering to sugar coat it. He just wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. 

The memory began, the god and the teen watching as Memory Peter landed on the roof. Peter took off his mask, sitting on the side of the roof and letting out a content sigh. 

The calm he felt at that moment was quickly interrupted when he felt his spidey-senses start to go off. Instantly, Peter stood up, looking around for the cause that set them off; the sound of two cars crashing being the answer he was looking for.

Peter quickly put his mask on and swung into the direction, looking at the scene in front of him. There was a car completely smashed to bits, being t-boned by another car that wasn't nearly as damaged. 

"Karen, call NYPD and tell them there was a car accident." Peter tells his A.I, not even needing her to respond to know she complied. 

Peter could see a young girl stumble out of the not-so-damaged car, making him drop down so he could run to help her. 

The girl saw Peter, technically Spider-Man, and quickly ran to him, practically tripping over her feet and falling in the process.

"H-Help! M-My Dad and Brother, they're-they're not waking up!" The girl shouts, Peter being quick to grab her arms so she wouldn't fall. 

"It's okay, I'm here to help, but I need to be quick. I have to be gone before the police come." Peter tells the girl, getting a quick and understanding nod from her before she stepped out of Peter's way. 

He wanted with his whole soul to help these people and stay to make sure they were all okay, but he was still a vigilante that hasn't signed the accords; the police were still required to arrest him as soon as they find him.

Peter quickly made it to the back of the car that the girl came from, seeing the young boy she was talking about. He was laying on the floor, nose, and forehead bleeding pretty bad. He obviously wasn't wearing a seatbelt, let alone sitting in a car seat like a boy his size should have been.

Peter gently took the small boy in his arms, being careful of his neck just in case there were injuries Peter didn't know about. He quickly walked over to where the girl was sitting, gently handing her younger brother to her. 

"Make sure you dol his neck, like this." Peter explains to the girl, getting another nod as she did what she was told. "You're being very brave and very helpful, thank you so much." Peter tries to comfort, walking back to the not-so-damaged car. 

He went to the front, knowing that getting the driver out was going to be harder. The front of the car was completely smashed in, plus Peter could hear sirens in the background meaning he didn't have much time left.

Peter looked at the man passed out at the wheel, seeing that his head was bleeding profusely. Peter took the handle of the door, using his strength to his advantage and ripping the door clean off. 

Peter reaching into the car, unbuckling the man and catching a glimpse of what caused the accident. There was an opened whiskey bottle sitting in the cup holder and empty beer cans flooding the passenger's side. 

Peter's stomach turned with disgust at the sight. How could someone do something like that, knowing their kids were in the car with them? How could someone do something like that even without their kids in the car?

Peter quickly pushed those feeling aside and focused on getting the man out of the car. As he went down to pick up the man, though, something - or more like someone - caught the corner of his eye. 

He slowly stood up, not wanting to believe it. It was just the lighting, it was dark out so the street light must just be playing tricks on his mind, right? Peter looked, seeing his beloved Aunt trapped in the other car, completely unconscious.

"Aunt May!" Peter screams, quickly standing all the way up now and running towards the front of the car. So many thoughts were currently running through his head and he knew he didn't have the time to save her. 

Honestly, Peter was willing to risk it all. He was willing to let the police find her, let Ross find him and send him to the Raft if it meant he could get his Aunt out of the completely destroyed car and to safety. 

Peter took the car that was keeping May's door pinned, quickly pushing it away from her car. Just as he did that, police cars, a couple of ambulances, and firetrucks began to come down the road, making him panic even more. 

"I love you, Aunt May. I have to go, but you're going to get out of there, I promise." Peter says, being quick to run into an alley right by the accident. He didn't want to be too far so he could still listen in on what was going on. 

Peter just stood there, back against one of the brick buildings there. The world around him was spinning and he felt like he was underwater; he couldn't breathe. 

_'Peter, your heart rate has increased to 148 beats per minute and your breathing is erratic. Do you want me to contact Mister Stark?' _Peter hears Karen ask him, but he couldn't answer; he couldn't even catch his breath. 

He just slowly slid down the wall, his knees giving out almost instantly. He watched as the firemen cut open May's car in an attempt to get her out, tears subconsciously falling down Peter's face. Apparently, Karen took Peter's silence as a cry for help.

_'Peter, as a part of my programming, I'm required to contact Mister Stark.' _Karen says, a few seconds of silence following. it didn't even register in Peter's head what Karen was doing until Tony's voice was heard. 

"Kid? What's up? Why is Karen contacting me?" Tony asks, Karen is the one to answer. 

_'Mister Stark, Peter's heart rate is increasing past 150 beats per minute and his breathing is erratic. It appears he's having an anxiety attack.'_ Karen tells the billionaire. 

"Kid, deep breaths. Breathe, Pete, just focus on breathing." Tony tries to coach, Peter taking longer gasps of air in now. "What's happening?" Tony asks after a few breaths.

"A-Aunt M-M-May.... accident." Peter stutters out, not really making sense.

"Karen?" Tony asks, hoping she could clear it up. 

_'There was a car accident and one of the drivers was Maybelle Parker.'_ Karen tells Tony. Before the man could reply though, Peter shot up and began swinging away from where he was. 

"Kid, where are you going?" Tony questions, hearing the wind in the background.

"They're taking her away. I have to be with her, I need to be with her." peter quickly says, not even stopping for a second to grab his bag of spare clothes. 

"Kid, just calm down. I'm on my way, okay, just wait for me. Meet me at the hospital. alright?" Tony says before quickly ending the call.

The scene quickly changed to Peter anxiously sitting in the hospital waiting room. The teen was staring at his socked feet, his knee bouncing up and down as he chewed nervously on his nail. 

He must have been able to block out most of his surroundings because it wasn't until Tony placed a hand on his shoulder that he was brought back to the present. Peter was no longer able to hold it together once he saw the worried look on Tony's face.

Peter stood up and practically fell into Tony's arms, sobbing loudly. Tony held the teenager close to him, rubbing his back and trying to get him to quiet down. 

"Shh, it's going to be okay, kid. You need to calm down, I promise it's going to be okay." Tony says, gently allowing the young boy to fall back into the chair he was previously sitting in. Peter stared at the ground again as Tony slowly took the chair next to him.

"Where are your clothes, Kid? You're not even wearing shoes." Tony says, referring to the fact that Peter was only in an undershirt, shorts, and socks. Peter didn't even react as Tony quickly shrugged off his coat and wrapped it around Peter's shoulders. 

"What happened?" Tony quietly asks, getting a head shake in return while Peter tries to catch his breath. 

"She's hurt bad, Mister Stark. There was hardly anything left of her car, I had to push the other car away just to get to her. I'm so wor-" Peter begins to explain, being cut off by an unwanted sob escaping his lips. Tony just gently put his hand on the teen's shoulder, not quite knowing what else to do. 

There was a long period of silence, no one really knowing what to say. Peter eventually decided to speak up, knowing that he was going to have to tell Tony that he almost got caught tonight because he'd be in deeper shit if Tony found out on his own.

"I almost got caught. I was trying to get Aunt May out of the car and was a little slow. I was able to hide before the police got out of their cars though. I don't think any of them saw where I went, but they do know I was there; I'm pretty sure the girl I helped told them." Peter quietly says, not even daring to take his eyes off of the floor. 

"You're kidding me, right?" Tony asks, Peter lightly shaking his head. Tony just sighed, rubbing his face before leaning towards the teen to continue the conversation. "Do you understand what could happen to you if you get caught?" Tony asks, making sure his voice was hush so others couldn't hear.

"Yes, I understand." Peter says, matching Tony's hushed tone.

"I don't think you do, Peter. If you get caught, you _will_ be arrested and most likely sent to the Raft. There will be no trial, no bail,_ nothing_ can stop you from being arrested; not even me." Tony whispers, trying to stress how important this really was. 

"I know. I've heard this a thousand times since the Avengers told me about the accords. I'm a vigilante that hasn't signed them yet because I'm a minor and technically can't be bonded to a legal contract; but Ross and them don't know that, which makes it worse. Can we please _not_ talk about this right now? I just... I figured I would tell you now instead of you finding out through Karen." Peter says, letting out a sigh as his knee begins to bounce up and down again. 

"I just need you to not be so reckless, Peter." Tony sadly says, Peter instantly looking at the man, anger flashing across the teen's face. 

""Reckless? What else was I supposed to do? Just leave her there to die? I did that already with Ben, I wa-" Peter begins to yell, instantly stopping himself and tightly closing his eyes to try and stop the now flowing tears. 

Tony just stared at the kid, practically holding his own breath at the mere mention of Peter's Uncle. Tony was never told the full story of what happened, the only thin he was told about it was that Ben was murdered and Peter blamed himself whole heartedly. 

"I wasn't going to do that with Aunt May. If I hadn't pushed the other car away, they wouldn't have even tried to save her. So, no offense, Mister Stark, but I don't really regret what I did; reckless or not." Peter admits once he gained a bit of composure back, shrugging his shoulders a bit.

"I don't blame you for that, Pete." 

A few hours passed - although to Loki and Present Peter it was a split second - and Tony and Peter were still stuck in the waiting room, watching as everyone around them were slowly updated about their family and friends, leaving only Tony and Peter in the room with a couple that arrived an hour ago. 

Sometime during the night, Tony had convinced Peter to text Ned and M.J, who were both worried after hearing there was a bad car accident right next to the teen's apartment. 

"May Parker." A doctor finally said, walking into the waiting room. As soon as her name was called, Peter and Tony both stood up; Peter quickly shrugging off Tony's coat as he walked up to the doctor. 

"H-How is she?" Peter croaks out, his heart nearly pounding out of his chest. He tried to prepare himself for the answer, but nothing could ever prepare someone for this kind of news. 

"I'm so sorry, it's not looking good. Surgery wasn't as successful as we hoped, but she made it through. Her condition is still very critical, and I'm so sorry to say this, but we're not sure she'll make it through the night." The doctor tells the two standing in front of her. 

It soon felt like the air was knocked completely out of Peter and he couldn't seem to get it back. The room around him started to spin as his leg began to feel numb, making him fall to the ground. Present Peter fell to the ground at the same time his memory-self did, pain searing through his body once again. 

"Woah, woah, Kid." Tony says, catching Memory Peter in his arms, Loki mirroring the scientist by catching Present Peter in his. The only difference between the two is whereas Memory Peter was crying out, Present Peter was gasping for air.

Tony tried to get Peter to calm down, but the teen didn't care who heard him right now. He didn't care if he was being disrespectful to others in the waiting room, the last bit of family he had left could be gone within a night. 

"Can we see her?" Tony asks as he holds the sobbing teen, knowing that they were both going to regret not saying goodbye now while they still had the chance. 

"Of course." The doctors says, signaling for them to follow her. 

"Come on, Pete, stand up." Tony says, trying to get the boy stable on his feet again; Loki doing the same for his Peter. 

Tony kept his arm around the teen, making sure he didn't fall again as they walked to the room they were keeping May in. The doctor stopped in front of a door, allowing the two to walk in alone. 

As soon as they got into the room, Peter broke away from Tony's grip and ran over to the bed. Peter fell into the chair that was right next to May and instantly took his Aunt's hand into his own.

Peter quickly blinked, trying to stop the tears that were threatening to spill. He hated seeing May like this. She seemed so lifeless with tubes coming out of everywhere on her body, even her throat. 

Tony stood back a bit, standing across the room. He didn't want to interrupt the moment between May and Peter and he never was good at saying goodbyes. Just him standing afar was his way of telling May goodbye.

"I'm so sorry this happened to you, Aunt May." Peter whispers, his voice cracking. He couldn't do it, he really couldn't bring himself to say goodbye. This was not what he wanted his last memory of his Aunt to be. 

"I love you so much, I hope you know that. You were the best Aunt anyone could ever ask for. You've helped me through so much shit, and you didn't even know what you were doing," Peter says, letting out a sad chuckle before continuing. 

"In your defense, I was just kind of thrown onto you and Uncle Ben. Yet, even after you weren't so sure about keeping me, you did it. You managed to be the best at raising me, with and without Ben... I need you to get better. Please, Aunt May, I need you. I don't know what I'm going to do without you." Peter says, letting his tears freely fall now. 

He went to say more, but he was cut off by a sob coming out instead. Thankfully, he didn't have to say more at the moment because the door to the room opened, revealing a puffy-faced Ned and a worried looking M.J walking in.

Peter really didn't realize how right Tony was about needing his best friend and girlfriend here with him until the moment he saw them; he knew that May would want to say goodbye to them too.

Peter walked over to his friend and girlfriend, M.J engulfing him in a tight hug; all of the teens trying not to cry more in the process.

"She might not make it through the night." Peter sobs, the hug tightening around him. Ned slowly joined the hug, everyone all crying uncontrollably at this point. 

"W-Wait." Peter says, pulling away from the group hug. "Something's wrong." Peter whispers, nothing but worry in his voice. 

"What do you mean, Pete?" Ned asks, quickly rubbing his eyes as Peter's breathing grew staggered and quick.

"Kid, what's going on?" Tony asks, not wanting to step in the teenager's moment, but determining that he had to now.

"Something's wrong." Peter gasps, looking around the room and trying to figure out what the sudden shift in environment was that was making his spidey-sense go off. 

"What do you mean? What's wrong?" Tony questions, Peter's breathing turning into quick and short gasps.

"Something's wrong, _something's wrong_, I can feel it! Something is wrong!" Peter screams over and over again, Tony signaling to one of the teens to go get the doctors. 

Ned and M.J went, a dreadful beeping noise going off as they left the room. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion for Peter. Almost as soon as the beeping went off, doctors and nurses flooded the room and around May's bed. 

Peter couldn't move, his legs refused to function as the doctors attempted to run around him. Peter just stared until he felt a pair of arms wrap around him, pulling him away. 

"No! Let me go! Let me go, now! May! May! No!" Peter screams as he tries to wiggle his way out of Tony's grip. 

Tony held Peter close to him as they stepped into the hallway, waiting of them to be allowed back in. Peter instantly fell to the ground, not even attempting to sit in one of the chairs out there. 

M.J and Ned slowly made their ways back to where Peter and Tony were, M.J sliding down against the wall and sitting down next to Peter. Peter quickly feel against her side, silently sobbing against her shoulder until the doctor came back.

Once one of the doctors did come back out, they gently explained that there was nothing they could do and that they were sorry for Peter's loss. Peter let his forehead lay on the floor, tears falling down his face once again, but his sobs were being trapped in his throat. The only thing that came out was a pitiful wheeze.

Peter had no choice now, he had to accept that the last living relative he had was dead. Aunt May was dead.

The scene quickly changed to Peter in a graveyard, staring down at the coffin that was no lowered in the ground. The change in scenery brought another dizzy spell for Present Peter, Loki holding him up once again and just wishing this memory would be over soon. 

Memory Peter just stood there staring, trying everything he could to not chase down almost everyone that came to the funeral and punch them. Peter was already having difficulties with being angry all the time - he was sure it was just misplaced anger, he was mainly pissed at the drunk driver that caused all of this - but having people who never truly cared about May, people who never did as much for her as she did for them, say such nice things didn't help with his anger issue. 

It also didn't help that a social worker had walked up to Tony and Peter the minute the service ended making Tony angrily take them and walk away from the teen. Peter knew he was going to get taken away, he knew they were going to eventually find out that he no longer had any guardians and not even Tony Stark could fix that.

Peter just continued stand and staring at the coffin, only startling slightly when a hand gently landed on his shoulder.

"Hey, what are you still doing here? The service ended about an hour ago." Peter asks once he looks over his shoulder and sees that it's M.J that's next to him.

'There's something about cemeteries that is calming to me. I'll come here sometimes to visit the graves that clearly haven't gotten visitors in a whiler. Just because they're dead, doesn't mean they don't get lonely." M.J explains, warming Peter's heart a bit; even more so when she laid her head on his shoulder in a silent offer of comfort.

"I'm getting taken away. Probably getting put into the foster care system." Peter says, making M.J's head snap up. 

"What makes you think that?" She asks, hoping that this wasn't true and it was just Peter's imagination.

"There's a social worker talking to Mister Stark right now. They've been talking since the funeral ended." Peter explains, worrying M.J. She didn't want Peter to be living in some ran down foster home where he'll undoubtedly be put into a different school far away from her; plus there was a high chance of him being put into an abusive household and that was the last thing she wanted for her boyfriend. 

"Don't you have any other family members in Queens, or anywhere in New York that you could live with?" M.J asks, trying to find anything that could help Peter not go into foster care. 

"No. you don't understand that when I say Aunt May was the last bit of family I had left, she really was all I had left." Peter snarks out, it coming out a lot harsher than he wanted. "Hey, I'm sorry." He softly apologizes, gently taking M.J's hand into his. 

"It's fine, I shouldn't have pried; especially in a stressful moment like this." M.J says as Tony walks up to the two teens. 

"Hey, Pete, are you ready to go or do you want to stay a bit longer?" Tony asks, making Peter take one last look at the coffin and sigh sadly. 

"I think I'm ready. Bye M.J, I'll try to text you later." Peter says, giving a small wave before walking off with the scientist. 

As Loki and Present Peter followed the memory, another dizzy spell that worse than all of the ones before overtook Peter, making him trip and fall flat to the ground. 

This time, when Loki tried to pick Peter up, the teen could even attempt to help the God. Peter couldn't breathe at all, his lungs just wouldn't cooperate and expand like he needed them to. 

Loki, sensing that they were completely out of time now and that the memory wasn't even close to being done decided that he had no choice but do something extremely risky.

"Enough of this. Child, I can try and make a gateway to our bodies with my magic since this should be the last memory. It's dangerous, and could easily give me magic exhaustion, so we only have one chance. If I don't do this or if this does not work, I'm afraid of what could happen to you." Loki says, Peter just giving him a pleading look.

Loki closed his eyes and took a deep breath, a giant ball of white light appearing right next to them. Loki stood up, swaying a bit as he picked Peter up. Exhaustion was clear in Loki's features, and blood was beginning to drip out of his ears and nose, but the God still managed to give a small smile to the teen in his arms.

"Lets get you back to your body." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's honestly insane to think that the next chapter is the last!! Thank you to everyone that stuck around for as long as you did and read this, I appreciate all of you so so much!!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki and Peter finally are back in their bodies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is... the last chapter... hopefully the ending is one that's satisfying to you

Gradually the bright white light faded, leaving Loki in darkness. His didn't feel as tense as he did a moment ago, but he didn't allow himself to relax quite yet. He could feel Peter's hand being held in his, but that didn't necessarily meant they were out of the woods yet; they still could be trapped.

"Tony, quit pacing. That's not going to make them wake up any faster." Loki could hear Bruce say. Loki let out a small relieved breath, the corner of his lip turning up slightly. 

"On the contrary, Doctor." Loki says, his voice barely raising above a whisper. 

"Brother? Are you alright? Were you successful?" Thor rapidly asks, Loki slowly peeling his eyes open to give a small, annoyed glare. 

"Thor, quite doting on me. It's all taken care of." Loki grumbles, Tony not being able to keep as calm as the mischievous God.

"He's still not waking up; Peter isn't waking up. Why is he still not waking up.?" Tony asks, rubbing Peter's chest only to get nothing in return.

"Because I have yet to take care of the Mare completely. He is back in his body, I assure you, but I must be quick to trap the Mare while she is weak and no longer has a hold on his soul." Loki says, slowly sitting up.

He was already exhausted, and knew that he was on the brink of magic exhaustion. He just hoped the Mare wouldn't fight him, and if she did, hopefully the rest of the people in the room would be able to take care of it.

Loki waved his hand over Peter, washing the teen in a shower of green. Once that disappeared, the horrifying, rangy woman appeared to everyone's eye on the boy's chest.

"What the hell?" Tony blurts, scooting over a bit to put some distance between them. Loki was quick to grab the handcuffs he was once held in and put them on the demon before she realized what was going on.

"He should be able to wake up in a minute." Loki says, handing the Mare over to Thor before wiping the small bit of blood that was dripping out of his nose.

"Loki-" Thor began.

"I'm fine." Loki brushes off, leaning back onto the couch, too exhausted to hold his body up. "But the Child might not be."

"What is that supposed to mean, exactly?" Tony asks defensively.

"I mean that I have seen his entire life be played out in front of me. I have seen every single torturous thing that he has been put through since he was three-years old. Things that could bring grown men to their knees. The Child had to experience years and years of trauma all over again." Loki sternly says, no one really knowing what to say.

"There was one constant, throughout all of it though. In almost all of his good memories, you were involved, Stark. This boy adores you, and if I find out one of these days that you've become the reason for more trauma, I will personally see to it that you will regret it for the rest of your life." Loki threatens, Tony trying to hide the shock he felt towards the idea of Loki caring for Peter. 

Then again, it was very easy to become attached to and protective of Peter.

"I wouldn't even stop you, reindeer games." Tony murmurs, pulling the teen close to his chest. The movement made Peter grumble a bit, Tony quickly pulling Peter into a somewhat upright position to try and wake him up.

"Pete? Are you awake? Open your eyes, Buddy." Tony says, rubbing the boy's chest. The boy just grumbled more, seemingly annoyed that he was being woken up, until he remember what was happening to make him be asleep. 

Peter slowly opened his eyes, fighting the drowsiness that was trying to pull him back into unconsciousness. Looking around he saw Steve and Bruce giving him wary looks, while Thor held onto the creature still and Loki looked as exhausted as the teen felt. 

Seeing all of this just made Peter sigh a bit, glancing up at his adoptive father to catch sight of the stressed and relieved look he was wearing.

"I'm assuming it wasn't a dream." Peter murmurs, burrowing further into Tony's chest and closing his eyes again.

"Not quite, Kiddo. How are you feeling?" Tony asks, rubbing Peter's arm to wake him back up.

"'M fine. Tired." Peter answers, Tony letting out a nervous chuckle before jostling the boy lightly. 

"Yeah, well, no going to sleep. Stay awake for a bit, Buddy." Tony says, Peter opening his eyes back up to look at Loki. Peter gave him a small smile when the God looked back at him, surprisingly getting a small smile in return. 

"Thank you for helping me." Peter whispers. 

"Of course, Child. You're alright now." Loki says, fully accepting of the hug that Peter gave him. 

"Well, we should be off. We need to get this creature back to our planet." Thor says, both Gods getting up and dragging the Mare with them as they left. 

"I'm so glad you're okay, Pete. Never again, please, never again." Tony whispers into the teens hair, hugging him a bit closer to him. 

"Never again." 

* * *

_'Boss, it is currently 7:30 and Mister Parker has ignored five of his wake up calls. If he continues to sleep, he will be late for school.' _FRIDAY says, efficiently waking Tony up.

It's been a month since the whole incident happened, and they were all still on edge. Tony was terrified every time they said goodnight, fully prepared for the next time Peter didn't wake up; these alerts from FRIDAY also didn't help to quell his worry. Tony could also tell that being reintroduced to all of his trauma has had a negative effect on Peter. 

There has been a lot more mental health days than usual due to nightmares plaguing Peter almost every night. But - even though the teen is clearly distraught and exhausted about all of them - Peter refused to talk about anything.

Tony still doesn't know anything about what Peter went through during his "dream", or during his life. It was killing Tony not being able to help his kid and having to sit on the sidelines and watch him sob in pain. He just wished he understood so he knew how to handle the situation, or how to at least attempt to help. 

Tony quickly walked into Peter's room, seeing the boy still sleeping with his face completely smooshed in his pillows. Not being able to see his face didn't help the panic Tony felt one bit, which was the only reason Tony decided waking up the teen slowly was not an option.

"Peter. Pete it's time to wake up, come on." Tony says, shaking Peter's shoulder in order to wake him up. Tony must not have heard the grunt Peter gave over the panic that was roaring through his ears because it wasn't until Peter snapped to face him that he realized the teen was awake.

"Stop! What is your problem?" Peter snaps, Tony instantly holding up his hands to show he meant no harm. He just sat there for a bit staring, unsure of what to do really; Peter's never snapped at him like this before. "Oh my gosh, Tony, quit fucking staring at me and get out. Leave me alone." And if that wasn't enough to snap Tony out of it, who knew what would.

"Excuse you, Mister, I don't know what your problem is, but-" Tony begins to scold, Peter swiftly sitting up and cutting him off.

"_What my problem is? _ You want to know what my problem is? My problem is that my parents were killed by a HYDRA agent when I was three and I had to live in isolation for a year-and-a-half to make sure the same didn't happen to me. My problem, is that at seven-years-old I was fucking raped by someone that was supposed to be my closest friend,"

"My problem is that I almost died from being bitten by a radioactive spider. My problem is that, after telling my Uncle about my powers, we were held at gunpoint and I selfishly thought I could be a hero, which resulted him getting shot and killed in front of my eyes. My problem is that my homecoming date tried to kill me by dropping an entire building on me. My problem is that even with my powers I had to watch my second set of parents die because I wasn't good enough,"

"My problem is that for whatever reason my life wasn't fucked up enough and a demon from another planet had to come in and make me remember every single fucking traumatic thing that ever happened to me. My problem is that I haven't been able to sleep in a month because every time I close my eyes I see all of that over and over again; but this time, it isn't because of the demon, and this time, I don't have Loki to help me get through it, and I can't,"

"I can't do this anymore, Tony. I can't do it." Peter finally breaks down. Tony, not being able to take seeing the boy in pain anymore, quickly sat on the bed next to Peter and quickly pulled him into his arms. 

Tony just sat there for a bit, rocking both him and the teen back and forth while he rubbed soothing patterns on the distraught teen's back. 

It took a bit for Peter to calm his sobs down into little cries, but Tony didn't rush him, he just continued to hold him and whispered sweet nothings in his ear to try and calm him down. 

"Tony." Peter whimpers, pushing his face into Tony's chest. 

"Yeah, Bud?" Tony asks, practically cradling Peter's head in his hand. 

"I'm sorry for swearing at you and telling you to go. I don't want you to go." Peter whispers.

"Don't worry about it, Underoos. I'm not going anywhere, I know you didn't mean it any of it. You're going through a really hard time right now; all is forgiven." Tony reassures, continuing the comforting circles on Peter's back. 

"I think I need help." Peter mumbles, his voice barely loud enough for Tony to hear. 

"Do you want help?" Tony asks, Peter nodding in return. "Then we'll get you help. We'll talk to Sam, figure out a therapist that would best fit you. We'll get you through this, Pete." 

"Together?" Peter asks, pulling away a bit and looking up at Tony. All Tony could do was smile and wipe the tears off Peter's face. And - not for the first time- Tony couldn't help but wonder what he did to deserve such a pure hearted boy to be his son. 

"Yeah, Pete. Together." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's one of the weirdest things for this story to be done... I had this idea over a year ago and just decided one day to write it. Little did I know that it was going to bring me here. 
> 
> Thank you so, so, SO much to everyone who has read this and stuck around to the very end, you have no idea how much it truly means to me.
> 
> As for the future, I have been planning a HUGE project since February and it'll be out in a couple of weeks. I do have a few one-shots planned for in-between though because I couldn't resist. 
> 
> If you want, my tumblr is Skeeter_110, come follow me to keep updated on said project, or subscribe to me.
> 
> Until then, thank you all again so so much and see you soon!

**Author's Note:**

> So like I said this is mainly me shedding awareness about all of the crap Peter Parker has been through in his life. It's light-hearted right now, but it'll get darker and more depressing later.


End file.
